Mormyrid Electric Fish
The mormyrid electric fish provides an example of corollary discharge in lower vertebrates. Specifically, the knollenorgan sensor (KS) is involved with electro-communication, detecting the electric organ discharges (EOD) of other fish. Unless the reafference was somehow modulated, the KS would also detect self generated EOD’s that would interfere with interpretation of external EOD’s needed for communication between fish. However, these fish display corollary discharges that inhibit the ascending sensory pathway at the first CNS relay point. These corollary discharges are timed to arrive at the same time as the reafference from the KS to minimize the interference of self-produced EOD's with the perception of external EODs, and optimize the duration of inhibition.
Read more about this topic: Efference Copy
Famous quotes containing the words electric and/or fish:
“A sociosphere of contact, control, persuasion and dissuasion, of exhibitions of inhibitions in massive or homeopathic doses...: this is obscenity. All structures turned inside out and exhibited, all operations rendered visible. In America this goes all the way from the bewildering network of aerial telephone and electric wires ... to the concrete multiplication of all the bodily functions in the home, the litany of ingredients on the tiniest can of food, the exhibition of income or IQ.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“I have often told you that I am that little fish who swims about under a shark and, I believe, lives indelicately on its offal. Anyway, that is the way I am. Life moves over me in a vast black shadow and I swallow whatever it drops with relish, having learned in a very hard school that one cannot be both a parasite and enjoy self-nourishment without moving in worlds too fantastic for even my disordered imagination to people with meaning.”
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948)