The jamming avoidance response of the electric fish, Eigenmannia: computational rules and their neuronal implementation

Studies of the neuronal organization of the jamming avoidance response (JAR) have revealed a distributed system of local computations of sensory information. A variety of electrosensory behaviors involved in social communication and object detection share networks with the JAR at the sensory and at the motor level within the hindbrain and the midbrain. Their respective flows of information however separate in the diencephalons where nodes dedicated to a single type of behavior provide sensory-motor interfaces. A comparison of neurons across different levels of sensory information processing reveals a gradual increase in the specificity and sensitivity of their responses to stimulus patterns guiding the JAR. Neurons with response properties similar in specificity and sensitivity to those of the intact behavior are encountered ultimately in the diencephalon.