Innervation of sonic muscles in teleosts: occipital vs. spinal nerves

The innervation of sonic muscles in teleosts has been categorized into three types: occipital nerve, spinal nerve, and a combination of occipital and spinal nerves. The innervation patterns of sonic muscles were examined (or re-examined) in seven sonic fish species (rockfish, pinecone fish, sweeper, tigerfish, piranha, dory, and pollack) that use the sonic muscles to vibrate the swimbladder. The peripheral nerves (occipital or spinal) were identified based on skeletal preparations. The sonic muscle innervation was of the occipital type in four species (rockfish, pinecone fish, sweeper, and tigerfish) and of the spinal type in three species (piranha, dory, and pollack); none of the seven species examined showed the combination type. Therefore, we hypothesized that innervation patterns could be divided simply into occipital and spinal types. Moreover, the present results revealed that previously reported innervation patterns are inaccurate for three species (tigerfish, piranha, and dory) re-examined in this study. Therefore, it is important to define the peripheral nerves precisely, by using skeletal preparations, in future investigations of sonic muscle innervation.