This book provides a comparative perspective on the topic of electroreception and reviews some of the fundamental insights gained from studies of electrosensory and electromotor systems to understand how the nervous system extracts biologically relevant information from the natural environment

A Brief History of Electrogenesis and Electroreception in Fishes

Bruce A. Carlson and Joseph A. Sisneros

The Development and Evolution of Lateral Line Electroreceptors: Insights from Comparative Molecular Approaches

Clare V. H. Baker

Electrosensory Transduction: Comparisons Across Structure, Afferent Response Properties, and Cellular Physiology

Duncan B. Leitch and David Julius

The Evolution and Development of Electric Organs

Jason R. Gallant

Biophysical Basis of Electric Signal Diversity

Michael R. Markham

Hormonal Influences on Social Behavior in South American Weakly Electric Fishes

Ana C. Silva

Evolutionary Drivers of Electric Signal Diversity

Rüdiger Krahe

Using Control Theory to Characterize Active Sensing in Weakly Electric Fishes

Sarah A. Stamper, Manu S. Madhav, Noah J. Cowan, and Eric S. Fortune

Envelope Coding and Processing: Implications for Perception and Behavior

Michael G. Metzen and Maurice J. Chacron

Evolution of Submillisecond Temporal Coding in Vertebrate Electrosensory and Auditory Systems

Bruce A. Carlson

Influences of Motor Systems on Electrosensory Processing

Krista Perks and Nathaniel B. Sawtell

Active Electrolocation and Spatial Learning

Sarah Nicola Jung and Jacob Engelmann

Bruce A. Carlson is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis

Joseph A. Sisneros is Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, Seattle

Arthur N. Popper is Professor Emeritus and research professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park Richard R. Fay is Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at Loyola University Chicago, Chicago

Autorentext

Bruce A. Carlson is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Joseph A. Sisneros is Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, Seattle

Arthur N. Popper is Professor Emeritus and research professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park

Richard R. Fay is Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at Loyola

Zusammenfassung

A fundamental goal of neuroscience is to understand how the nervous system extracts biologically relevant information from the natural environment and how it uses that information to guide and coordinate behavior necessary for reproduction and survival. The electrosensory systems of weakly electric teleost fishes and those of nonteleost fishes are attractive systems for addressing basic questions about neuronal information processing and its relationship to natural behavior. Comparative approaches in these fishes have led to the identification of fundamental mechanisms that have shaped the adaptive evolution of sensory systems across animal taxa. Understanding how sensory systems encode and integrate information about the natural world has far reaching implications for advancing our knowledge in the basic biomedical sciences and in understanding how the nervous system has evolved to control behavior.

The primary goal of this book is to provide a comparative perspective on the topic of electroreception and review some of the fundamental insights gained from studies of electrosensory and electromotor systems. Although totally independent, this book follows from volume 21 in the Springer Handbook of Auditory Research series, Electroreception (Bullock, T. H., Hopkins, C. D., Popper, A. N., and Fay, R. R., 2005, Springer-Verlag, New York).

Inhalt

1. The Evolution of Electroreception: An Historical Overview
Bruce A. Carlson and Joseph A. Sisneros

This chapter will provide an historical introduction to the field that focuses on evolutionary diversity. This will include a description of phylogenetic diversity that helps orient readers to the various taxonomic groups that have electroreception. It will also address phenotypic diversity, including differences between tuberous and ampullary electrosensory systems, and the wide variety of tuberous electrosensory systems, and how these differences are adapted to behavioral function.

2. Comparative Genomics Approaches to the Evolution and Development of Electroreceptors
Clare V. Baker This chapter will review recent advances in our understanding of the evolution and development of electroreceptors. Developmental genetics studies in cartilaginous and bony fishes have confirmed the homology of ampullary electroreceptors in non-teleost jawed vertebrates, and their embryonic origins from lateral line placodes. This review will focus on these important recent discoveries and on remaining questions regarding the evolutionary and developmental origins of teleostean ampullary and tuberous electroreceptors.

3. Comparative Genomics Approaches to the Evolution and Development of Electric Organs
Graciela A. Unguez, Jason R. Gallant, and Harold H. Zakon This chapter will address the fundamental question of what constitutes a true electric organ, and how to distinguish true electric organs from possible intermediate stages in their evolution from muscle. The focus of this chapter will then be to review recent developments in our understanding of the evolutionary and embryological origins of electric organs. Comparative genetics and genomics studies have revealed the molecular basis for the evolution of electric organs across multiple clades, with implications for better understanding electric organ development.

4. Biophysical Basis of Electric Signal Diversity
Michael R. Markham This chapter will address the morphological and physiological basis for the generation of electric organ discharges (EODs). The focus will be on specializations in electrocyte morphology and physiology, and how these generate specific features of the EOD waveform. A comparative perspective will relate species differences in morphology and physiology to EOD diversity.

5. Evolutionary Drivers of Electric Signal Diversity
Rüdiger Krahe

This chapter will focus on ecological genetics and the ultimate evolutionary causes of EOD diversification in gymnotiforms and mormyroids, including ecological adaptation, sexual selection, and predation. In addition, this chapter will address the role of electric signaling in species diversification.

6. Sensory Adaptations to Active Sensing and Communication
Eric S. Fortune This chapter will focus on general principles related to the anatomy and physiology of different tuberous electrosensory systems, and how they are adapted to their particular functions. This overview will highlight shared, independently evolved features of tuberous electrosensory systems that point to fundamental mechanisms, as well as the tremendous diversity of tuberous electrosensory systems and how this reflects adaptations to different functions.

7. Evolution of Time-Coding in Electrosensory and Auditory Systems
Bruce A. Carlson The focus of this chapter will be on common themes in temporal coding across sensory systems, as well as key differences. It will address both sub-millisecond timing comparisons (interaural time differences, phase comparisons, pulse duration, electric signal waveform) and temporal patterns (call rates, pulse intervals, modulation rates). This topic has the distinct advantage of a common computational problem with clear behavioral relevance having been studied in-depth in a diversity of auditory and electrosensory sy…