scholarly journals The sensory basis of schooling by intermittent swimming in the rummy-nose tetra ( Hemigrammus rhodostomus )

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1937) ◽  
pp. 20200568
Author(s):  
Amberle McKee ◽  
Alberto P. Soto ◽  
Phoebe Chen ◽  
Matthew J. McHenry

Schooling is a collective behaviour that enhances the ability of a fish to sense and respond to its environment. Although schooling is essential to the biology of a diversity of fishes, it is generally unclear how this behaviour is coordinated by different sensory modalities. We used experimental manipulation and kinematic measurements to test the role of vision and flow sensing in the rummy-nose tetra ( Hemigrammus rhodostomus ), which swims with intermittent phases of bursts and coasts. Groups of five fish required a minimum level of illuminance (greater than 1.5 lx) to achieve the necessary close nearest-neighbour distance and high polarization for schooling. Compromising the lateral line system with an antibiotic treatment caused tetras to swim with greater nearest-neighbour distance and lower polarization. Therefore, vision is both necessary and sufficient for schooling in H. rhodostomus , and both sensory modalities aid in attraction. These results can serve as a basis for understanding the individual roles of sensory modalities in schooling for some fish species.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 7759
Author(s):  
Xinghua Lin ◽  
Qing Qin ◽  
Xiaoming Wang ◽  
Junxia Zhang

The flow field is difficult to evaluate, and underwater robotics can only partly adapt to the submarine environment. However, fish can sense the complex underwater environment by their lateral line system. In order to reveal the fish flow sensing mechanism, a robust nonlinear signal estimation method based on the Volterra series model with the Kautz kernel function is provided, which is named KKF-VSM. The flow field signal around a square target is used as the original signal. The sinusoidal noise and the signal around a triangular obstacle are considered undesired signals, and the predicting performance of KKF-VSM is analyzed after introducing them locally in the original signals. Compared to the radial basis function neural network model (RBF-NNM), the advantages of KKF-VSM are not only its robustness but also its higher sensitivity to weak signals and its predicting accuracy. It is confirmed that even for strong nonlinear signals, such as pressure responses in the flow field, KKF-VSM is more efficient than the commonly used RBF-NNM. It can provide a reference for the application of the artificial lateral line system on underwater robotics, improving its adaptability in complex environments based on flow field information.


Author(s):  
W.R. Jones ◽  
S. Coombs ◽  
J. Janssen

The lateral line system of the mottled sculpin, like that of most bony fish, has both canal (CNM) and superficial (SNM) sensory end organs, neuromasts, which are distributed on the head and trunk in discrete, readily identifiable groupings (Fig. 1). CNM and SNM differ grossly in location and in overall size and shape. The former are located in subdermal canals and are larger and asymmetric in shape, The latter are located directly on the surface of the skin and are much smaller and more symmetrical It has been suggested that the two may differ at a more fundamental level in such functionally related parameters as extent of myelination of innervating fibers and the absence of efferent innervation in SNM. The present study addresses the validity of these last two features as distinguishing criteria by examining the structure of those SNM populations indicated in Fig. 1 at both the light and electron microscopic levels.All of the populations of SNM examined conform in general to previously published descriptions, consisting of a neuroepithelium composed of sensory hair cells, support cells and mantle cells, Several significant differences from these accounts have, however, emerged. Firstly, the structural composition of the innervating fibers is heterogeneous with respect to the extent of myelination. All SNM groups, with the possible exception of the TRrs and CFLs, possess both myelinated and unmyelinated fibers within the neuroepithelium proper (Fig. 2), just as do CNM. The extent of myelina- tion is quite variable, with some fibers sheath terminating just before crossing the neuroepithelial basal lamina, some just after and a few retaining their myelination all the way to the base of the hair cells in the upper third of the neuroepithelium. Secondly, all SNMs possess fibers that may, on the basis of ultrastructural criteria, be identified as efferent. Such fibers contained numerous cytoplasmic vesicles, both clear and with dense cores. In regions where such fibers closely apposed hair cells, subsynaptic cisternae were observed in the hair cell (Fig. 3).


2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 657-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Levi ◽  
Otar Akanyeti ◽  
Aleksander Ballo ◽  
James C. Liao

The ability of fishes to detect water flow with the neuromasts of their lateral line system depends on the physiology of afferent neurons as well as the hydrodynamic environment. Using larval zebrafish ( Danio rerio), we measured the basic response properties of primary afferent neurons to mechanical deflections of individual superficial neuromasts. We used two types of stimulation protocols. First, we used sine wave stimulation to characterize the response properties of the afferent neurons. The average frequency-response curve was flat across stimulation frequencies between 0 and 100 Hz, matching the filtering properties of a displacement detector. Spike rate increased asymptotically with frequency, and phase locking was maximal between 10 and 60 Hz. Second, we used pulse train stimulation to analyze the maximum spike rate capabilities. We found that afferent neurons could generate up to 80 spikes/s and could follow a pulse train stimulation rate of up to 40 pulses/s in a reliable and precise manner. Both sine wave and pulse stimulation protocols indicate that an afferent neuron can maintain their evoked activity for longer durations at low stimulation frequencies than at high frequencies. We found one type of afferent neuron based on spontaneous activity patterns and discovered a correlation between the level of spontaneous and evoked activity. Overall, our results establish the baseline response properties of lateral line primary afferent neurons in larval zebrafish, which is a crucial step in understanding how vertebrate mechanoreceptive systems sense and subsequently process information from the environment.


Zoomorphology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Ahnelt ◽  
David Ramler ◽  
Maria Ø. Madsen ◽  
Lasse F. Jensen ◽  
Sonja Windhager

AbstractThe mechanosensory lateral line of fishes is a flow sensing system and supports a number of behaviors, e.g. prey detection, schooling or position holding in water currents. Differences in the neuromast pattern of this sensory system reflect adaptation to divergent ecological constraints. The threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is known for its ecological plasticity resulting in three major ecotypes, a marine type, a migrating anadromous type and a resident freshwater type. We provide the first comparative study of the pattern of the head lateral line system of North Sea populations representing these three ecotypes including a brackish spawning population. We found no distinct difference in the pattern of the head lateral line system between the three ecotypes but significant differences in neuromast numbers. The anadromous and the brackish populations had distinctly less neuromasts than their freshwater and marine conspecifics. This difference in neuromast number between marine and anadromous threespine stickleback points to differences in swimming behavior. We also found sexual dimorphism in neuromast number with males having more neuromasts than females in the anadromous, brackish and the freshwater populations. But no such dimorphism occurred in the marine population. Our results suggest that the head lateral line of the three ecotypes is under divergent hydrodynamic constraints. Additionally, sexual dimorphism points to divergent niche partitioning of males and females in the anadromous and freshwater but not in the marine populations. Our findings imply careful sampling as an important prerequisite to discern especially between anadromous and marine threespine sticklebacks.


1993 ◽  
Vol 07 (01n03) ◽  
pp. 207-211
Author(s):  
T. KRAFT ◽  
M. METHFESSEL ◽  
M. VAN SCHILFGAARDE ◽  
M. SCHEFFLER

Using the full-potential linear muffin-tin orbital method within the local spin-density approximation we analyse the influence of the nearest neighbour distance on fcc(111) or hcp(0001) iron layers. The LDA-LSDA error in describing ferromagnetic phases is determined to be at least 15 mRy/atom. As a consequence of this error, our calculations favour paramagnetic ground states. In this sense, the reported results have some model character. However, our analysis of the elastic energy cost under distortions should hold for transition metals in general. Allowing relaxations of the interplanar distance the fcc phase can become energetically favourable over the hcp phase at large lattice mismatches. The main reason for this behaviour is the enhanced stiffness of the hcp interplanar bonds due to the shortening of the axial c/a ratio.


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