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Peripheral Hearing Structures in Fishes: Diversity and Sensitivity of Catfishes and Cichlids

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Fish Hearing and Bioacoustics

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 877))

Abstract

Fishes have evolved an astonishing diversity of peripheral (accessory/ancillary) auditory structures to improve hearing based on their ability to transmit oscillations of gas bladder walls to the inner ears. So far it is unclear to what degree the size of the bladder and the linkage to the ear affect hearing in fishes. An interfamilial study in catfishes revealed that families which possess large, single swim bladders and one to four Weberian ossicles were more sensitive at higher frequencies (≥1 kHz) than families which have small, paired, and encapsulated bladders and one to two ossicles. An intrafamilial investigation in thorny catfishes (family Doradidae) revealed that small differences in bladder morphology did not affect hearing similarly. Members of the cichlid family possess an even larger variation in peripheral auditory structures than catfishes. The linkage between the swim bladder and ear can either be present via anterior extensions of the bladder or be completely absent (in contrast to catfishes). Representatives having large bladders with extensions had the best sensitivities. Cichlids lacking extensions had lower sensitivities above 0.3 kHz. Species with a vestigial swim bladder exhibited a smaller hearing bandwidth than those with larger swim bladder (maximum frequency: 0.7 kHz vs. 3 kHz). Catfishes and cichlids reveal that larger gas bladders and more pronounced connections between the swim bladder and the inner ear result in improved hearing at higher frequencies. The lack of a connection between a large bladder and the inner ear does not necessarily result in a smaller detectable frequency range.

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Acknowledgements

This review is dedicated to Arthur N. Popper and Richard R. Fay to celebrate more than 45 years of work in fish bioacoustics. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work and publish with both of them. Art invited me to his lab in 1998 and 1999 and introduced me to the field of inner ear structure in fishes, which resulted in a common paper on labyrinth fish ears in 2001. Subsequently we wrote a review on the parallel evolution of fish hearing organs. This cooperation with Art on ears resulted years later in several studies of mine with colleagues in Germany. Dick invited me to Fallmouth and Woods Hole in 1999. He impressed me by his knowledge in vertebrate hearing (see his 1988 book) and his interests in all fields and techniques including the auditory evoked potential (AEP) technique (which he never used). Our common “AEP” interest resulted in 2013 in a review on the auditory evoked potential audiometry in fishes in which we compared behavioral to AEP data and summarized all studies published within the last 15 years.

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  1. Department of Behavioural Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Friedrich Ladich

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Correspondence to Friedrich Ladich .

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Joseph A. Sisneros

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Ladich, F. (2016). Peripheral Hearing Structures in Fishes: Diversity and Sensitivity of Catfishes and Cichlids. In: Sisneros, J. (eds) Fish Hearing and Bioacoustics. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 877. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21059-9_15

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