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Recording Acoustic Behavior in Astyanax mexicanus Fish: Acquisition, Decryption, and Interpretation

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Emerging Model Organisms

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 194))

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Abstract

Acoustic communication, a key feature in social animals involving exchange of information between congeners, or with individuals of other species, can be studied in experimentally controlled conditions as well as in freely behaving individuals in natural contexts. Integrative approaches, coupling transdisciplinary knowledge from neuroscience, physics, and refined computational spectral decoding, have recently allowed a better structural decryption of species-specific sounds associated with basic or complex behaviors. Here are described gold-standard procedures to synchronize underwater sound and video acquisition, subsequent sound and behavioral analysis, and quantification, with playback functional response assays in the surface and cave morphotype of Astyanax mexicanus in a laboratory context. The goal is to provide procedures on how to apply both qualitative and quantitative video–sound recordings to study acoustic behaviors and communication in fish and highlight advantages and limitations of the approach.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Brian Martineau and the husbandry technicians’ team at the Department of Genetics of Harvard Medical School for their help in installing the soundproof booth and for excellent fish care. I am very grateful to my collaborators, Joël Attia and Sylvie Rétaux, who allowed me to record underwater sounds. Finally, this chapter would not have been possible without the generous support of Clifford Tabin supporting my work and providing comments and edits to this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Blavatnik Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    Carole Hyacinthe

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  1. Carole Hyacinthe
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Correspondence to Carole Hyacinthe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Biological Sciences Beijing, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Wei Wang

  2. Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO, USA

    Nicolas Rohner

  3. Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Kansas City, MO, USA

    Yongfu Wang

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Hyacinthe, C. (2023). Recording Acoustic Behavior in Astyanax mexicanus Fish: Acquisition, Decryption, and Interpretation. In: Wang, W., Rohner, N., Wang, Y. (eds) Emerging Model Organisms. Neuromethods, vol 194. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2875-1_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2875-1_19

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-2874-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-2875-1

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