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The jamming avoidance response of high frequency electric fish

I. General features

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Summary

  1. 1.

    The J.A.R. is a reflex shift in the frequency of discharge of their electric organs by high frequency electric fish (Gymnotidae:Eigenmannia, Sternarchus) when stimulated by an alternating current in the water, with a frequency close to the fish's. The shift is in the direction of increasing the difference (ΔF) between its frequency (F fish) and that of the stimulus (F stim). The significance of this behavior is presumed to be the maintenance of a private frequency for the object-detection function of the electric system, when another fish of nearly the same frequency approaches.

  2. 2.

    The pathway (Fig. 1) includes a high precision pacemaker unit in the medulla under the tonic influence of electroreceptors. The simplicity of the relevant parameters and the convergence on one command unit in a complete piece of quantifiable social behavior attracts attention to the J.A.R.

  3. 3.

    The latency, time course, form, asymmetry, and variability, the effects of temperature, anesthesia, mechanical and electrical disturbance, light, salinity and spontaneous background changes, and the absence of effect of sound are described (Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5).

  4. 4.

    Eigenmannia will usually shiftF fish up for a — ΔF and down for a +ΔF, rather symmetrically;Sternarchus will only shift upwards and gives no response to a +ΔF.

  5. 5.

    Experimentally isolating parts of the system indicates that the fish does not compare the stimulus frequency with its pacemaker frequency directly but must receive both through the same set of electroreceptors.

  6. 6.

    The stimuli of opposite effect, when given simultaneously cause an intermediate response, i.e. both stimuli are effective.

  7. 7.

    The response survives section of the posterior branch of the anterior lateral line nerves bilaterally and, with slightly raised threshold and latency, of the supraorbital and maxillary branches as well, leaving only the mandibular. It survives partial lesions of the corpus cerebelli and valvula and complete transection in front of the mesencephalon. Lesions of the torus semicircularis of the mesencephalon cause loss or gross abnormality of the J.A.R.

  8. 8.

    The ΔF sensitivity, dynamic range and other properties suggest that the biological significance of preserving a private frequency lies in the need of unknown brain mechanisms, that analyze the fish's own field for object detection, to function over a considerable range of distance from object to fish and therefore of voltage of a signal clearly the fish's own.

  9. 9.

    Evidence from bringing two or more fish together, whose separate frequencies are close, suggests the J.A.R. is used in natural social situations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosciences of the School of Medicine and Neurobiology Unit of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego

    Theodore H. Bullock, Robert H. Hamstra Jr. & Henning Scheich

Authors
  1. Theodore H. Bullock
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  2. Robert H. Hamstra Jr.
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  3. Henning Scheich
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Additional information

This research was aided by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and the Office of Naval Research.

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Bullock, T.H., Hamstra, R.H. & Scheich, H. The jamming avoidance response of high frequency electric fish. J. Comp. Physiol. 77, 1–22 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00696517

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