Sound source localization by fishes

Abstract

The ability to locate sound sources enables animals to detect prey, avoid predators, and communicate with conspecifics, and is thus basic to the survival of many vertebrate species. Evidence suggests that the capacity to locate sound sources is common to amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, but surprisingly it is not known whether fish locate sound sources in the same manner. Sound source localization by fishes continues to be an important topic in the hearing sciences, but the empirical and theoretical work on this topic has been contradictory and obscure for decades. Studies of sound localization by fishes have been difficult to conceive of primarily because fish are assumed not to use the same binaural acoustic cues as terrestrial animals, and secondarily, because the dominant theories for sound localization by fishes are rather complex and most fish are thought to be unable to detect the sound cues theoretically necessary for localization. Thus, the question of how fish locate sounds remains an open one. Dr. Sisneros’ talk will describe the work of Fay and Sisneros that address sound source localization in the plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus), which has proven to be an exceptional species for fish studies of sound localization.