THE NEURONAL BASIS OF COMMUNICATION AND ORIENTATION IN THE WEAKLY ELECTRIC FISH, EIGENMANNIA .2. ELECTROLOCATION AND AVOIDANCE OF JAMMING BY NEIGHBORING CONSPECIFICS

The weakly electric fish, Eigenmannia, can shift its electric organ di scharge (EOD) frequency in order to avoid jamming by signals originati ng from neighboring conspecifics. This jamming avoidance response (JAR ) represents an ideal model system to study the neuronal implementatio n of behavior from the sensory periphery to the motor output. The neur onal mechanisms that guide this behavior on the sensory side clearly i llustrate the processing of sensory information in separate but parall el channels, each specialized in computing different stimulus variable s. Convergence at higher-order-level structures generates the emergenc e of pattern-specific neurons. It appears that also the motor side of the JAR is mediated by two separate pathways that function according t o a push-pull principle.