A role of synchronous firing of sensory-motor interface induced by noise in sign selective process generating jamming avoidance response

To clarify the neural mechanism by which weakly electric fish discriminates a sign of frequency difference (Df) between its own electric organ dischar ge (EOD) and the neighbor's, we proposed the binding mechanism of amplitude and phase information in lamina 8 of the torus and the integration mechani sm in nucleus electrosensoris (nE). The binding can eliminate the wrong sig nals about the sign of Df. When the modulation of EOD signal is extremely s mall, the nE network can detect a sign of Df by the dynamical integration w hich is made by the synchronous firings of nE neurons induced by noises. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.