Affiliation:
1. Department of Physics, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA
Abstract
SUMMARYMost biological sensory systems benefit from multiple sensors. Elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) possess an array of electroreceptive organs that facilitate prey location, mate location and navigation. Here, the perceived electrosensory landscape for an elasmobranch approaching prey is mathematically modeled. The voltages that develop simultaneously in dozens of separate sensing organs are calculated using electrodynamics. These voltages lead directly to firing rate modifications in the primary afferent nerves. The canals connecting the sense organs to an elasmobranch's surface exhibit great variation of location and orientation. Here, the voltages arising in the sense organs are found to depend strongly on the geometrical distribution of the corresponding canals. Two applications for the modeling technique are explored: an analysis of observed elasmobranch prey-capture behavior and an analysis of morphological optimization. For the former, results in specific predator-prey scenarios are compared with behavioral observations, supporting the approach algorithm suggested by A. Kalmijn. For the latter, electrosensory performance is contrasted for two geometrical models of multiple sense organs,a rounded head and a hammer-shaped head.
Publisher
The Company of Biologists
Subject
Insect Science,Molecular Biology,Animal Science and Zoology,Aquatic Science,Physiology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference26 articles.
1. Bennett, M. (1971). Electroreception. In Fish Physiology, vol. V (ed. W. Hoar and D. Randall), pp. 493-574. New York: Academic Press.
2. Bennett, M. and Clusin, W. (1978). Physiology of the ampulla of Lorenzini, the electroreceptor of elasmobranchs. In Sensory Biology of Sharks, Skates and Rays (ed. E. Hodgson and R. Mathewson), pp. 483-506. Arlington,VA, USA: US Department of Defense.
3. Braun, H. A., Wissing, H., Schafer, K. and Hirsch, M. C.(1994). Oscillation and noise determine signal transduction in shark multimodal sensory cells. Nature367,270-273.
4. Durlach, N. I. and Colburn, H. S. (1978). Binaural phenomena. In Handbook of Perception, vol.IV (ed. E. Carterette and M. Friedman), pp.365-466. San Francisco: Academic Press.
5. Gilbert, C. (1967). A taxonomic synopsis of the hammerhead sharks (Family Sphyrnidae). In Sharks, Skates and Rays (ed. P. Gilbert, R. Mathewson and D. Rall), pp.69-78. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press.
Cited by
9 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献