Saccular potentials of the vocal plainfin midshipman fish, Porichthys notatus

Abstract

The plainfin midshipman fish, Porichthys notatus, is a vocal species of teleost fish that generates acoustic signals for intraspecific communication during social and reproductive behaviors. All adult morphs (females and males) produce single short duration grunts important for agonistic encounters, but only nesting males produce trains of grunts and growls in agonistic contexts and long duration multiharmonic advertisement calls to attract gravid females for spawning. The midshipman fish uses the saccule as the main acoustic endorgan for hearing to detect and locate vocalizing conspecifics. Here, I examined the response properties of evoked potentials from the midshipman saccule to determine the frequency response and auditory threshold sensitivity of saccular hair cells to behaviorally-relevant single tone stimuli. Saccular potentials were recorded from the rostral, medial and caudal regions of the saccule while sound was presented by an underwater speaker. Saccular potentials of the midshipman, like other teleosts, were evoked greatest at a frequency that was twice the stimulus frequency. Results indicate that midshipman saccular hair cells of non-reproductive adults had a peak frequency sensitivity that ranged from 75 (lowest frequency tested) to 145 Hz and were best suited to detect the low frequency components (<or=105 Hz) of midshipman vocalizations.