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Phase-locking behavior in a high-frequency gymnotiform weakly electric fish, Adontosternarchus

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Abstract

An apteronotid weakly electric fish, Adontosternarchus, emits high-frequency electric organ discharges (700–1500 Hz) which are stable in frequency if no other fish or artificial signals are present. When encountered with an artificial signal of higher frequency than the fish’s discharge, the fish raised its discharge frequency and eventually matched its own frequency to that of the artificial signal. At this moment, phase locking was observed, where the timing of the fish’s discharge was precisely stabilized at a particular phase of the artificial signal over a long period of time (up to minutes) with microsecond precision. Analyses of the phase-locking behaviors revealed that the phase values of the artificial stimulus at which the fish stabilizes the phase of its own discharge (called lock-in phases) have three populations between −180° and +180°. During the frequency rise and the phase-locking behavior, the electrosensory system is exposed to the mixture of feedback signals from its electric organ discharges and the artificial signal. Since the signal mixture modulates in both amplitude and phase, we explored whether amplitude or phase information participated in driving the phase-locking behavior, using a numerical model. The model which incorporates only amplitude information well predicted the three populations of lock-in phases. When phase information was removed from the electrosensory stimulus, phase-locking behavior was still observed. These results suggest that phase-locking behavior of Adontosternarchus requires amplitude information but not phase information available in the electrosensory stimulus.

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Abbreviations

AM:

Amplitude modulation

Df :

Frequency difference: f st − f eod

EOD:

Electric organ discharge

f eod :

Frequency of electric organ discharge

f st :

Frequency of electrosensory stimulus

f rest :

Resting frequency of electric organ discharge

LIP:

Lock-in phase: the value of ψ at which fish maintains phase locking

PLB:

Phase-locking behavior

ψ :

Phase difference defined as the phase of the stimulus in reference to the Phase of the EOD: ψ = [stimulus phase] − [EOD phase]

ST:

Electrosensory stimulus

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. DeForest Mellon and two anonymous referees for critical comments.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA

    Masashi Kawasaki & John Leonard

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  1. Masashi Kawasaki
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  2. John Leonard
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Correspondence to Masashi Kawasaki.

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Kawasaki, M., Leonard, J. Phase-locking behavior in a high-frequency gymnotiform weakly electric fish, Adontosternarchus . J Comp Physiol A 203, 151–162 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-017-1148-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-017-1148-x

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