Temporal Pattern Recognition in Electric Fish Flashcards
Social communication in electric fish
Communicate and navigate using electric organ discharges (EOD) - contain information about sender identity (species, sex, reproductive condition, etc.)
Components of electric fish communication
EOD - all or none electric potential
Timing of EOD - sequence of pulse intervals (SPI)
Information conveyed by shape of EOD
Shape depends on species, gender (wide range of EOD intervals between males and females + time of day → generally smaller intervals for females, smaller intervals for nighttime than daytime, fewer EODs for males at nighttime)
Sensory pathway mediating electrical communication
Knollenorgan (KO) → hindbrain → ELa → ELp
Feature detection in ELp neurons
Change in ELp neurons based on change in stimulus interpulse intervals (IPI)
Types of ELp neurons
Low pass neurons - allow low-frequency stimuli
High pass neurons - allow high-frequency stimuli
Band pass neurons - allow mid-frequency stimuli
Tuning curve of ELp neurons
IPI that evoked highest response was termed “Best Interval” (BI) → found IPIs above and below the BI that elicited responses equal to 85% of the response at the BI → termed U85 (high pass) and L85 (low pass)
Low pass neurons
Respond more regularly to 100 ms IPI than 10 ms IPI (tuned to respond to large IPIs → lower spike response to small IPIs)
High pass neurons
Respond more regularly to 10 ms IPI than 100 ms IPI (tuned to respond to high frequency impulses → maximal response at 10 ms)
Band pass neurons
Respond more regularly to 50 ms IPI than either extreme (bell curve tuning → maximal response at 50 ms)
Neural mechanisms of temporal tuning
Combination of excitation and inhibition → neurons tuned to respond to 100 ms are inhibited to hyperpolarize for 100 ms
