Abstract
Many groups of fishes perceive naturally occurring electric stimuli. They possess ampullary electroreceptor organs that respond to low‐frequency electric fields. Two nocturnally active teleost groups produce weak electric signals (electric organ discharges, EOD), which they perceive with tuberous electroreceptor organs. In addition to “passive electrolocation,” these weakly electric fish perform “active electrolocation,” during which they detect alterations of their EOD caused by nearby objects. This enables them to perceive the complex impedance of objects and thus to identify animated objects. In addition, they can measure distance, size, shape, and other 3D object properties. When inspecting an object, the weakly electric fish Gnathonemus petersii employs two “electrical foveae" that are located on their moveable chin appendage and in the nasal region. The former is used for object inspection, while the latter is used for object detection during foraging. The brain of weakly electric fishes extracts information about objects by analyzing the input from the electroreceptor organs. The study of electroreceptive brain areas has revealed many general principals of neural processing of sensory and motor information.
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