Mapping and Simulating the Electric Fields of Weakly Electric Fish

各种各样的小型淡水鱼被称为弱电鱼，因为它们有像电鳗一样的电器官，但只产生很小的电压。它们的电子器官放电，EOD，具有特定的波形和时间模式，并在鱼周围产生空间模式的电场。皮肤上的一个复杂的电感受器系统使它们能够通过探测周围物体产生的电场变化和其他鱼类的信号来调查周围的环境。与蝙蝠和海豚的听觉回声定位系统类似，这种电感觉行为被称为电定位。该项目将电场测量纳入计算模拟，以产生由鱼检测到的电感觉图像的新颖三维重建。详细分析这些电场的时空组织将有助于更好地理解它们产生的机制，以及它们对物体识别的可能意义。开发一种能够准确重建磁场的模拟器，将允许对鱼在探索行为中运动的电感觉后果进行定量调查。这种结合了数学、生理和行为的方法将阐明外部环境是如何被整个感觉系统“成像”的，以及如何使用该图像来指导空间定向行为，这是感觉神经科学的一个主要问题。在其他两个领域也有潜在的影响，一个是机器人或残疾人辅助传感系统的生物工程开发，另一个是野外生态学，这个绘制电场电位数据的软件可以用于分析水生盐度数据，以跟踪河口生态系统的关键变化。

A variety of small freshwater fishes are known as weakly electric fish, since they have an electric organ like that of the electric eel, but produce only a small voltage with it. Their electric organ discharge, the EOD, has a particular waveform and temporal pattern, and produces a spatially patterned electric field around the fish. A sophisticated system of electroreceptor organs in the skin allows them to investigate their environment by detecting changes in this electric field produced by objects around them, and the signals of other fish. By analogy to the bat and the dolphin auditory echolocation system, this electrosensory behavior is called electrolocation. This project incorporates electrical field measurements into computational simulations to produce novel three-dimensional reconstructions of the electrosensory images detected by the fish. Detailed analysis of the spatial and temporal organization of these electric fields will help to better understand both the mechanisms by which they are generated, as well as their possible significance for object recognition. Development of a simulator capable of accurately reconstructing the fields will allow a quantitative investigation of the electrosensory consequences of fish movements during exploratory behavior. This combined mathematical, physiological and behavioral approach will clarify how the external environment is "imaged" by a whole sensory system, and how that image is used to guide spatially oriented behavior, which is a major general issue for sensory neuroscience. There is potential impact in two other fields, one in bioengineering development of sensing systems for robotics or aids to handicapped, and the other in field ecology where the this software for mapping electric field potential data could be used for analyzing aquatic salinity data to track critical changes in estuarine ecosystems.