The Role of a Chirp-Like Signal in the Weakly Electric Fish Steatogenys sp.
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1
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Biopsychology & Behavioral Neuroscience PhD Program, United States
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2
Hunter College, Psychology Department, United States
When presented with potentially jamming electric signals, members of the weakly electric fish genus Steatogenys (a pulse-type weakly electric fish) sometimes respond with brief increases in electric organ discharge (EOD) rate with decreases in amplitude, which we have termed chirplets. This response is similar to chirps in other species, which are associated with male-male aggression and courtship. Chirps are sparingly documented in pulse-type species but well documented in the wave-type species Apternotus leptorhynchus. Chirplets occurred rarely in an isolation condition but frequently under playback conditions when subjects were presented with a potentially jamming signal. We have not observed the chirplet in other pulse-type species in either condition. In playbacks differing from the subject’s own signal only by frequency, subjects emitted the most chirplets in response to a playback with a frequency slightly higher than their own (df = +0.5 Hz). In these playbacks, chirplets were emitted immediately following EOD coincidence with the playback. Further analysis and experimentation showed that subjects emitted the most chirplets to playback pulses occurring at the same time as their own EOD, or just before their own EOD (dt = 0, -0.5 ms) and did not emit chirplets in response to playback pulses occurring shortly after their own EOD, regardless of frequency difference. To ascertain the similarities to chirps in other species, and the function of the chirplet as a potentially agonistic or appeasement communicatory signal, we investigated the relationship between chirplet propensity, EOD frequency, EOD duration, body size, and resource holding potential; we found these variables to be tied to dominance status. Future work will examine the potential hormonal mechanisms by which the chirplet is modulated.
Keywords:
animal communication,
chirps,
Electric Fish,
electrocommunication
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster (but consider for student poster award)
Topic:
Communication
Citation:
Field
C and
Braun
CB
(2012). The Role of a Chirp-Like Signal in the Weakly Electric Fish Steatogenys sp..
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00339
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Received:
30 Apr 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
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Correspondence:
Ms. Caitlin Field, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Biopsychology & Behavioral Neuroscience PhD Program, New York, NY, 10016, United States, cfiel@hunter.cuny.edu