Abstract
Corollary discharge is an important brain function that allows animals to distinguish external from self-generated signals, which is critical to sensorimotor coordination. Since discovery of the concept of corollary discharge in 1950, neuroscientists have sought to elucidate underlying neural circuits and mechanisms. Here, we review a history of neurophysiological studies on corollary discharge and highlight significant contributions from studies using African mormyrid weakly electric fish. Mormyrid fish generate brief electric pulses to communicate with other fish and to sense their surroundings. In addition, mormyrids can passively locate weak, external electric signals. These three behaviors are mediated by different corollary discharge functions including inhibition, enhancement, and predictive “negative image” generation. Owing to several experimental advantages of mormyrids, investigations of these mechanisms have led to important general principles that have proven applicable to a wide diversity of animal species.
Highlights
When we move our eyes to shift our gaze, a drastic change happens in our retinal image, but we still perceive a static visual scene
Carlson confirmed that the anatomical pathway was similar to that of G. petersii (Bell et al, 1983), and added important new findings: (1) In addition to precommand nucleus (PCN), the dorsal posterior nucleus of the thalamus (DP) provides a major input to the command nucleus (CN); (2) ventroposterior nucleus (VP) has two distinct subdivisions, one dorsal (VPd) and one ventral (VPv); (3) VPv projects to the CN, DP, and PCN, whereas VPd projects only to DP and PCN; (4) VPd receives input from the corollary discharge pathway via mesencephalic command-associated nucleus (MCA) (Figure 9). These findings suggested that VPd neurons were the source of corollary discharge inhibition of PCN neurons first identified by von der Emde et al (2000)
We found that fish with long-duration electric organ discharges (EODs) have delayed corollary discharge inhibition of the nucleus of the electrosensory lateral line lobe (nELL) and that this time-shifted corollary discharge optimally blocks electrosensory responses to the fish’s own EOD (Fukutomi and Carlson, 2020)
Summary
Corollary discharge is an important brain function that allows animals to distinguish external from self-generated signals, which is critical to sensorimotor coordination. We review a history of neurophysiological studies on corollary discharge and highlight significant contributions from studies using African mormyrid weakly electric fish. Mormyrids can passively locate weak, external electric signals. These three behaviors are mediated by different corollary discharge functions including inhibition, enhancement, and predictive “negative image” generation. Owing to several experimental advantages of mormyrids, investigations of these mechanisms have led to important general principles that have proven applicable to a wide diversity of animal species
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