Full Description

"Midshipman fish (Porichthys notatus) depend on vocal communication for successful courtship and reproduction. Territorial males use sonic swim bladder muscles (Fig. 1A) to produce several call types, differing primarily in duration (Brantley and Bass 1994) (Fig. 1B)."

"Natural calls in the midshipman have either a fundamental frequency (for harmonic “hums”) or pulse repetition rate (for nonharmonic “grunts”) close to 100 Hz (Fig. 1B)."

"B: oscillograms (y-axis = amplitude, x-axis = time) of the primary call types of type I male midshipman recorded from nest sites. Long-duration (min to 1 h) “hums” are used to attract and court females to the nest site, whereas trains of brief (millisecond) grunts are used in agonistic encounters such as repelling competing males (Brantley and Bass 1994). Fundamental frequency of the hum and the pulse repetition rate of the grunt (shown with expanded time axes) are close to 100 Hz."

Observation Environment Quotes

"Fish were collected from tidal pool nesting sites or by offshore trawls in northern California and Washington, shipped to Cornell University, and maintained in artificial seawater (ASW) tanks at about 15°C."

Behaviour Description Quotes

"Midshipman fish use vocalization to signal social intent in territorial and courtship interactions."

" The vocal–motor output of the hindbrain vocal pattern generator—the “fictive vocalization”—was monitored with an extracellular electrode [75-um diameter Teflon-coated silver wire (A-M Systems, Sequim, WA) with an exposed ball tip, 125–200
m in diameter] placed on an occipital nerve root that carries the axons of motor neurons from the ipsilateral sonic motor nucleus to the ipsilateral sonic muscle; both sonic motor nuclei fire in phase (Bass and Baker 1990)."

" B: oscillograms (y-axis = amplitude, x-axis = time) of the primary call types of type I male midshipman recorded from nest sites. Long-duration (min to 1 h) “hums” are used to attract and court females to the nest site, whereas trains of brief (millisecond) grunts are used in agonistic encounters such as repelling competing males (Brantley and Bass 1994). Fundamental frequency of the hum and the pulse repetition rate of the grunt (shown with expanded time axes) are close to 100 Hz."

Sound Name Quotes

"Stimulation of the MLF, the sole descending pathway for PAG axons connecting to the hindbrain vocal circuitry, affected the probability and duration of vocal bursts, but not their latency or discharge frequency. "

"Natural calls in the midshipman have either a fundamental frequency (for harmonic “hums”) or pulse repetition rate (for nonharmonic “grunts”) close to 100 Hz (Fig. 1B)."