Epilepsy as a unifying principle in electrofishing theory: A proposal

Fisheries scientists have long studied the behavior of fish in electrified water. However, the science of electrofishing (the use of electricity to ca pture fish) evolved independently of other fields of science whose knowledg e could have explained the behaviors of fish to electric shock. Theories to explain the behavior of organisms in electric fields developed out of two paradigms: classical stimulus-response (S-R) theory, and "local action" of electrical energy on nerves and muscle fibers. Stimulus-response theories d ominated in the late 19th Century; although they were abandoned by the earl y 20th Century by animal behaviorists they persisted in work with fish. An alternative theory, the "local action" paradigm, arose soon after 1900. Att ributing galvanotropisms to the action of electricity on local nerves and m uscles fibers, the local action theory remains in one form or another the m ain explanation for galvanotropisms today. However, neurologists have recog nized for more than 100 years that electric stimulation of vertebrates caus es epileptic seizures. Similar epileptic seizures are produced by alternati ng, direct, and pulsed currents of any shape or Frequency. Thr observed beh aviors result from stimulation of the central nervous system, not from loca l nerve and muscle responses. Spike-wave patterns of neural discharge on el ectroencephalograms, which are diagnostic of epilepsy, have been recorded i n fish. Current electrofishing terms can be marched up with epileptic termi nology: twitching, orientation, taxis, and the turn or escape maneuver are automatisms: narcosis is a petit mal seizure; pseudo-forced swimming is due to tonic-tonic contractions, and tetany is a grand mol seizure. Spinal inj uries are due to myoclonic jerk, and happen early in the seizure when autom atisms occur. Also, patchy discoloration of the skin due to chromatophore a ctivity is explainable as a result of sympathetic discharge during grand ma l seizure. Epilepsy explains all of the phenomena seen in electroshocked fi sh.