Simulation and Measurement of the Electric Fields Generated by Weakly Electric Fish

The weakly electric fish, Gnathonemus peters;;, explores its environment by generating pulsedelecbic fields and detecting small pertwbations in the fields resulting from nearby objects. Accordingly, the fISh detects and discriminates objects on the basis of a sequence of elecbic "images" whose temporal and spatial properties depend on the timing ofthe fish's electric organ discharge and its body position relative to objects in its environmenl Weare interested in investigating how these fish utilize timing and body-position during exploration to aid in object discrimination. We have developed a fmite-element simulation of the fish's self-generated electric fields so as to reconstruct the electrosensory consequencesof body position and electric organ discharge timing in the fish. This paper describes this finite-element simulation system and presents preliminary electric fieldmeasurements which are being used to tune the simulation.