Why the brown ghost chirps at night
Since the pioneering work by Moeller, Szabo, and Bullock, weakly electric fish have served as a valuable model for investigating spatial and social cognitive abilities in a vertebrate taxon usually less accessible than mammals or other terrestrial vertebrates. These fish, through their electric orga...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2025-01-01
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| Series: | eLife |
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| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/88287 |
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| _version_ | 1841560865917108224 |
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| author | Livio Oboti Federico Pedraja Marie Ritter Marlena Lohse Lennart Klette Rüdiger Krahe |
| author_facet | Livio Oboti Federico Pedraja Marie Ritter Marlena Lohse Lennart Klette Rüdiger Krahe |
| author_sort | Livio Oboti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Since the pioneering work by Moeller, Szabo, and Bullock, weakly electric fish have served as a valuable model for investigating spatial and social cognitive abilities in a vertebrate taxon usually less accessible than mammals or other terrestrial vertebrates. These fish, through their electric organ, generate low-intensity electric fields to navigate and interact with conspecifics, even in complete darkness. The brown ghost knifefish is appealing as a study subject due to a rich electric ‘vocabulary’, made by individually variable and sex-specific electric signals. These are mainly characterized by brief frequency modulations of the oscillating dipole moment continuously generated by their electric organ, and are known as chirps. Different types of chirps are believed to convey specific and behaviorally salient information, serving as behavioral readouts for different internal states during behavioral observations. Despite the success of this model in neuroethology over the past seven decades, the code to decipher their electric communication remains unknown. To this aim, in this study we re-evaluate the correlations between signals and behavior offering an alternative, and possibly complementary, explanation for why these freshwater bottom dwellers emit electric chirps. By uncovering correlations among chirping, electric field geometry, and detectability in enriched environments, we present evidence for a previously unexplored role of chirps as specialized self-directed signals, enhancing conspecific electrolocation during social encounters. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cae08caa913c45cd8077ad8ef94839b7 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj-art-cae08caa913c45cd8077ad8ef94839b72025-01-03T12:46:37ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2025-01-011210.7554/eLife.88287Why the brown ghost chirps at nightLivio Oboti0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7197-568XFederico Pedraja1Marie Ritter2Marlena Lohse3Lennart Klette4Rüdiger Krahe5Institut für Biologie, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Neuroscience, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, United StatesInstitut für Biologie, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GermanyInstitut für Biologie, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GermanyInstitut für Biologie, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GermanyInstitut für Biologie, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, GermanySince the pioneering work by Moeller, Szabo, and Bullock, weakly electric fish have served as a valuable model for investigating spatial and social cognitive abilities in a vertebrate taxon usually less accessible than mammals or other terrestrial vertebrates. These fish, through their electric organ, generate low-intensity electric fields to navigate and interact with conspecifics, even in complete darkness. The brown ghost knifefish is appealing as a study subject due to a rich electric ‘vocabulary’, made by individually variable and sex-specific electric signals. These are mainly characterized by brief frequency modulations of the oscillating dipole moment continuously generated by their electric organ, and are known as chirps. Different types of chirps are believed to convey specific and behaviorally salient information, serving as behavioral readouts for different internal states during behavioral observations. Despite the success of this model in neuroethology over the past seven decades, the code to decipher their electric communication remains unknown. To this aim, in this study we re-evaluate the correlations between signals and behavior offering an alternative, and possibly complementary, explanation for why these freshwater bottom dwellers emit electric chirps. By uncovering correlations among chirping, electric field geometry, and detectability in enriched environments, we present evidence for a previously unexplored role of chirps as specialized self-directed signals, enhancing conspecific electrolocation during social encounters.https://elifesciences.org/articles/88287weakly electric fishbrown ghostchirpsapteronotus leptorhynchuselectrocommunicationconspecific localization |
| spellingShingle | Livio Oboti Federico Pedraja Marie Ritter Marlena Lohse Lennart Klette Rüdiger Krahe Why the brown ghost chirps at night eLife weakly electric fish brown ghost chirps apteronotus leptorhynchus electrocommunication conspecific localization |
| title | Why the brown ghost chirps at night |
| title_full | Why the brown ghost chirps at night |
| title_fullStr | Why the brown ghost chirps at night |
| title_full_unstemmed | Why the brown ghost chirps at night |
| title_short | Why the brown ghost chirps at night |
| title_sort | why the brown ghost chirps at night |
| topic | weakly electric fish brown ghost chirps apteronotus leptorhynchus electrocommunication conspecific localization |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/88287 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT liviooboti whythebrownghostchirpsatnight AT federicopedraja whythebrownghostchirpsatnight AT marieritter whythebrownghostchirpsatnight AT marlenalohse whythebrownghostchirpsatnight AT lennartklette whythebrownghostchirpsatnight AT rudigerkrahe whythebrownghostchirpsatnight |