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Motor programmes and electroreception in mormyrid fish

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Summary

  1. 1.

    A repertoire of five probing motor acts (PMAs) is used by Marcusenius cyprinoides in the exploratory behaviour of novel objects, introduced into the fish's surroundings: chin probing, ‘va et vient,’ lateral probing, tangential probing, and stationary probing.

  2. 2.

    Four of these PMAs are displayed at a defined distance from the object: 6.8±0.4 cm for a metallic rod and 3.1±0.5 cm for a porous porcelain tube.

  3. 3.

    The exploratory behaviour is accompanied by the appearance of a characteristic electric organ discharge activity mode in the interpulse interval histogram. This pattern is typically emitted during va et vient, but occurs also during other acts of exploratory behaviour.

  4. 4.

    The results indicate that PMAs are probably used to reproducably determine the conductivity characteristics of an object.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Physiologie Nerveuse, Département de Neurophysiologie Sensorielle, C.N.R.S., F-91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    M. J. Toerring & P. Belbenoit

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  1. M. J. Toerring
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  2. P. Belbenoit
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Additional information

The stay of M.J. Toerring in the C.N.R.S. at Gif-sur-Yvette is supported by a grant of the Dr. Carl Duisberg Foundation, Bad Tölz, West-Germany

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Toerring, M.J., Belbenoit, P. Motor programmes and electroreception in mormyrid fish. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 4, 369–379 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00303243

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