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Neuronal Encoding of Ultrasonic Sound by a Fish

¹Department of Biology and ²Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742; ³National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560; and ⁴RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Submitted 11 December 2003; accepted in final form 27 January 2004

Many species of odontocete cetaceans (toothed whales) use high-frequency clicks (60–170 kHz) to identify objects in their environment, including potential prey. Behavioral studies have shown that American shad, Alosa sapidissima, can detect ultrasonic signals similar to those of odontocetes that are potentially their predators. American shad also show strong escape behavior in response to ultrasonic pulses between 70 and 110 kHz and can determine the location of the sound source at least in the horizontal plane. The present study examines physiological aspects of ultrasound detection by American shad and provides the first insights into the neural encoding of ultrasound signals in any nonmammalian vertebrate. The recordings were obtained by penetration through the cerebellar surface. All but two units responded exclusively to ultrasound. Ultrasound-sensitive units did not phase-couple to any stimulus frequency. Some units resembled the response of constant latency neurons found in the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus of bats. We suggest that ultrasonic and sonic signals are processed along different pathways in Alosa. The ultrasonic pathway in Alosa appears to be a feature detector that is likely to be adapted (e.g., frequency, intensity) to odontocete echolocation signals.