Multisensory integration in teleost fishes

动物在自然环境中准确探测和响应刺激的能力通常依赖于许多不同感觉系统输入的整合。尽管这种依赖于多种感觉输入，但我们对感觉功能的了解大多是基于对孤立的感觉系统的研究。对于动物如何整合信息以获得外部环境的整体图景，我们知之甚少。拟议的研究将试图通过首先检查鱼对听觉刺激的反应，然后对来自其他系统的刺激的反应来解决这种不平等，以了解其他系统如何与听觉相互作用。这将首先在圆虾虎鱼（Neogobius melanostomus）中进行，这是加拿大的一种高度入侵的鱼类。我们将使用行为和生理方法测试虾虎鱼的反应，以确定大脑如何处理来自许多感觉通道的信息，以及这种处理如何影响虾虎鱼对刺激的反应能力。然后，我们将评估这些多感觉反应是如何随着虾虎鱼成熟到生殖成年而变化的，以了解激素是如何重塑感觉系统和大脑区域的。评估圆虾虎鱼的这些反应本身就很有趣，它解释了脊椎动物如何处理多种类型的信息，但也将有助于设计针对这种入侵物种的缓解策略。在成功完成对虾虎鱼的研究后，我们将在其他两种鱼类中提出类似的问题，以确定我们观察到的反应的普遍性。

The ability of animals to accurately detect and respond to stimuli in their natural environment typically depends on integration of inputs from many different sensory systems. Despite this reliance on multiple sensory inputs much of what we know about sensory function is based on studies of sensory systems in isolation. We know much less about how animals actually integrate information to obtain an overall picture of their external environment. The proposed research will attempt to address this inequity by examining responses of fish first to auditory stimuli and then to stimuli from other systems to see how other systems interact with hearing. This will first be conducted in the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), a highly invasive fish in Canada. We will test responses of gobies using behavioural and physiological approaches to ascertain how the brain processes information from many sensory channels and how this processing affects the ability of the goby to respond to the stimulus. We will then assess how these multisensory responses change as gobies mature into reproductive adults to understand how hormones can remodel sensory systems and brain areas. Assessment of these responses in the round goby will be interesting in its own right, explaining how vertebrates process multiple types of information, but will also be useful in designing mitigation strategies for this invasive species. Upon successful completion of the work in the goby we will then ask similar questions in two other fish species to determine the generality of our observed responses.