Evidence for mutual allocation of social attention through interactive signaling in a mormyrid weakly electric fish.

ABSTRACT: Mormyrid weakly electric fish produce electric organ discharges (EODs) for active electrolocation and electrocommunication. These pulses are emitted with variable interdischarge intervals (IDIs) resulting in temporal discharge patterns and interactive signaling episodes with nearby conspecifics. However, unequivocal assignment of interactive signaling to a specific behavioral context has proven to be challenging. Using an ethorobotical approach, we confronted single individuals of weakly electric Mormyrus rume proboscirostris with a mobile fish robot capable of interacting both physically, on arbitrary trajectories, as well as electrically, by generating echo responses through playback of species-specific EODs, thus synchronizing signals with the fish. Interactive signaling by the f

SUBMITTER: Worm M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6042124 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature