Title

Electric Organ Discharges And Near-Field Spatiotemporal Patterns Of The Electromotive Force In A Sympatric Assemblage Of Neotropical Electric Knifefish

Keywords

Amazon; Brachyhypopomus; Cloaking; Communication; Electric organ; Electrogenesis; Electroreception; Gymnotiform; Hypopomidae

Abstract

Descriptions of the head-to-tail electric organ discharge (ht-EOD) waveform – typically recorded with electrodes at a distance of approximately 1–2 body lengths from the center of the subject – have traditionally been used to characterize species diversity in gymnotiform electric fish. However, even taxa with relatively simple ht-EODs show spatiotemporally complex fields near the body surface that are determined by site-specific electrogenic properties of the electric organ and electric filtering properties of adjacent tissues and skin. In Brachyhypopomus, a pulse-discharging genus in the family Hypopomidae, the regional characteristics of the electric organ and the role that the complex ‘near field’ plays in communication and/or electrolocation are not well known. Here we describe, compare, and discuss the functional significance of diversity in the ht-EOD waveforms and near-field spatiotemporal patterns of the electromotive force (emf-EODs) among a species-rich sympatric community of Brachyhypopomus from the upper Amazon.

Publication Date

10-1-2016

Publication Title

Journal of Physiology Paris

Volume

110

Issue

3

Number of Pages

164-181

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphysparis.2016.10.004

Socpus ID

85005995825 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85005995825

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