Central auditory neurophysiology of a sound-producing fish: the mesencephalon of Pollimyrus isidori (Mormyridae)

Abstract

This paper describes the auditory neurophysiology of the mesencephalon of P. isidori, a sound-producing mormyrid fish. Mormyrids have a specialized pressure-sensitive auditory periphery, and anatomical studies indicate that acoustic information is relayed to the mesencephalic nucleus MD. Fish were stimulated with tone bursts and clicks, and responses of MD neurons were recorded extracellularly. Auditory neurons had best frequencies (BF) and best sensitivities (BS) that fell within the range of frequencies and levels of the natural communication sounds of these fish. BSs were in the range of 0 to -35 dB (re. 1.0 dyne/cm2). Many of the neurons were tuned (Q10 dB: 2-6), and had BFs in the range of 100-300 Hz where the animal's sounds have their peak energy. A range of different physiological cell types were encountered, including phasic, sustained, and complex neurons. Some of the sustained neurons showed strong phase-locking to tones. Many neurons exhibited non-monotonic rate-level functions. Frequencies flanking the BF often caused a reduction in spontaneous activity suggesting inhibition. Many neurons showed excellent representation of click-trains, and some showed a temporal representation of inter-click-intervals with errors less than 1 ms.