Some Auditory Discrimination Experiments on Marine Fish

• Main Authors: CHAPMAN, C. J., JOHNSTONE, A. D. F.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Company of Biologists 1974
• Subjects: Articles; Gadus morhua
• Online Access: http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/61/2/521

The ability of cod, Gadus morhua (L.), and haddock, Melanogrammus aeglefinus (L.), to discriminate changes in sound direction and amplitude was studied using a cardiac conditioning technique. In one experiment it was found that the masking effect of noise transmitted from one sound projector on the ability of the fish to detect a tone (60-380 Hz) transmitted from another projector was reduced by 7 dB when the angle between the projectors was 45° or greater. It was also shown that the fish could be conditioned to a change in the direction of a pulsed tone switched between two projectors. The fish were able to discriminate changes in sound amplitude of 1.3-9.5 dB at frequencies between 50 and 380 Hz. The results are discussed in relation to sound localization in fish.