Mormyrid fish as models for investigating sensory‐motor integration: A behavioural perspective

• Published in: Journal of zoology (1987) Vol. 319; no. 4; pp. 243 - 253
• Main Authors: Skeels, S., Emde, G., Burt de Perera, T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-04-2023; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: active electrolocation; Animal behavior; Animals; behaviour; Electric fields; Electrolocation; Engines; Environmental information; Fish; Gnathonemus petersii; mormyrids; Motion detection; Motor systems; Object recognition; Pattern recognition; Review; Sensory integration; sensory‐motor integration; weakly electric fish; object recognition; active electrolocation; mormyrids; behaviour; Gnathonemus petersii; sensory‐motor integration; weakly electric fish
• ISSN: 0952-8369; 1469-7998
• DOI: 10.1111/jzo.13046

Animals possess senses which gather information from their environment. They can tune into important aspects of this information and decide on the most appropriate response, requiring coordination of their sensory and motor systems. This interaction is bidirectional. Animals can actively shape their perception with self‐driven motion, altering sensory flow to maximise the environmental information they are able to extract. Mormyrid fish are excellent candidates for studying sensory‐motor interactions, because they possess a unique sensory system (the active electric sense) and exhibit notable behaviours that seem to be associated with electrosensing. This review will take a behavioural approach to unpicking this relationship, using active electrolocation as an example where body movements and sensing capabilities are highly related and can be assessed in tandem. Active electrolocation is the process where individuals will generate and detect low‐voltage electric fields to locate and recognise nearby objects. We will focus on research in the mormyrid Gnathonemus petersii (G. petersii), given the extensive study of this species, particularly its object recognition abilities. By studying object detection and recognition, we can assess the potential benefits of self‐driven movements to enhance selection of biologically relevant information. Finally, these findings are highly relevant to understanding the involvement of movement in shaping the sensory experience of animals that use other sensory modalities. Understanding the overlap between sensory and motor systems will give insight into how different species have become adapted to their environments.
We demonstrate the value of taking a behavioural approach to understanding sensory‐motor integration using mormyrid fish as models. These fish have a well‐characterised active electric sense and show locomotor behaviours that seem to be closely coupled with electrosensing, and these can be studied simultaneously during active electrolocation. We show that these components can be interrogated by carefully designed behavioural experiments and insight from these fish can be applied to understanding active sensing more generally.