Figure 1.

Spatial and temporal aspects of latency coding in the mormyrid electrosensory system. A, A nearby conductive object alters the pattern of current flowing through the fish’s skin at the time of the EOD (left). Object-induced changes in the LEOD amplitude are encoded by the latencies of spikes in afferents innervating neighboring electroreceptors (right). LEOD amplitude is larger for electroreceptor afferents closest to the object, resulting in shorter spike latencies. B, Pulse-type mormyrid fish emit brief EOD pulses separated by much longer intervals (top). External stimuli result in modulations in EOD amplitude sampled at the time of the EOD pulses (middle). At each electroreceptor, sequences of EOD amplitudes are encoded by sequences of afferent spike latencies (bottom).