U.S.-Germany Cooperative Research: The Paddlefish Detacting and Mapping the Outside World - Experiment and Modeling

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9981709WilkensThis award supports Lon Wilkens and a graduate student from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in a collaboration with Leo van Hemmem of the Department of Physics at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. The collaboration seeks to understand the neural mechanisms which underlie passive electrosensory detection and capture of planktonic prey by paddlefish. That fish has a unique, elongated rostrum which has recently been shown to act as an antenna in plankton feeding. The paddlefish is an ideal subject for studying the neural mechanisms which map the sensory environment since the paddlefish sensitivity to electric fields is acute and provides sensory information necessary for accurate feeding strikes by juvenile fish in the absence of other sensory inputs. Neuroanatomical and electophysiological experiments will provide parameters for modeling the peripheral electroreceptive system and for characterizing peripheral sensitivity to natural planktonic prey. The collaboration will combine the theoretical modeling expertise of the German group with the experimental capabilities of the U.S. side.