Multimodal sensory integration in the strike-feeding behaviour of predatory fishes

The search for useful model systems for the study of sensory processing in vertebrate nervous systems has resulted in many neuroethological studies investigating the roles played by a single sensory modality in a given behaviour. However, behaviours relying solely upon information from one sensory modality are relatively rare. Animals behaving in a complex, three-dimensional environment receive a large amount of information from external and internal receptor arrays. Clearly, the integration of sensory afference arising from different modalities into a coherent 'gestalt' of the world is essential to the behaviours of most animals. In the last several years our laboratory team has examined the roles played by the visual and lateral line sensory systems in organizing the feeding behaviour of two species of predatory teleost fishes, the largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, and the muskellunge, Esox masquinongy. The free-field feeding behaviours of these fishes were studied quantitatively in intact animals and compared to animals in which the lateral line and visual systems had been selectively suppressed. All groups of animals continued to feed successfully, but significant differences were observed between each experimental group, providing strong clues as to the relative role played by each sensory system in the organization of the behaviour. Furthermore, significant differences exist between the two species. The differences in behaviour resulting when an animal is deprived of a given sensory modality reflect the nature of central integrative sensory processes, and these behavioural studies provide a foundation for further neuroanatomical and physiological studies of sensory integration in the vertebrate central nervous system.