Advisor: Carl Hopkins Start Date:
Fall 2002
I am interested in sensory systems and, also, the development of the nervous system. My current research is concerned with sensory processing of communication signals. Humans receive such information through visual and auditory sensory channels, for example. In order to produce the correct behavioral response, our senses must pick out the signal from the environment and accurately represent it in the central nervous system. How does this happen? What about signals that are temporally very similar but have rather different meanings? To answer these questions, I study a sensory system that exists only in aquatic animals: the lateral line system. It consists of two parts, but I focus on the electrosensory part. Members of a large family of African freshwater fishes have an electric sense they use for communication by producing weak electric pulses. These nocturnal fishes must be able to correctly recognize the species-specific electric pulse for the purposes of social behavior. Presently, I am asking how the species-specific “identity” signal is represented in the brain of the fish. To learn more, click here.
