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Updated: Oct 27, 2025

Activity of Posterior Lateral Line Afferent Neurons during Swimming in Zebrafish

Activity of Posterior Lateral Line Afferent Neurons during Swimming in Zebrafish

Published on: February 10, 2021

Fish can save energy via proprioceptive sensing.

Liang Li^1,2,3, Danshi Liu⁴, Jian Deng⁴

¹Department of Collective Behaviour, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell am Bodensee 78315, Germany.

Bioinspiration & Biomimetics

|July 20, 2021

Summary

Fish can save energy by sensing flow cues with their tails, even without their lateral line system. This discovery reveals a new mechanism for efficient swimming in schooling fish and robotic systems.

Keywords:

energy saving hydrodynamic interaction proprioceptive sensing robotic fish schooling fish

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Last Updated: Oct 27, 2025

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Area of Science:

Biophysics
Robotics
Animal Locomotion

Background:

Fish employ diverse strategies for efficient locomotion in fluid environments.
The lateral line system is traditionally considered crucial for sensing local flow and optimizing swimming.
Recent findings suggest fish can benefit from flow cues even with impaired lateral lines.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if fish can save energy by utilizing proprioceptive sensing of vortices shed by neighbors.
To test the hypothesis that simple caudal fin proprioception is sufficient for energy-efficient swimming.
To explore a new sensory-motor mechanism for schooling fish and inform robotic fish control.

Main Methods:

Developed a central pattern generator (CPG) controller with feedback, proprioceptive sensing, and reinforcement learning.
Simulated the CPG controller on a computational fish model.
Experimented with a robotic fish in dynamic, unknown flow conditions.

Main Results:

Proprioceptive sensing of low-dimensional flow signals (e.g., perceived forces) was sufficient for optimizing body undulation.
Energy savings were achieved without relying on input from the lateral line system.
The CPG controller successfully adapted body undulation based on proprioceptive feedback.

Conclusions:

Simple proprioceptive sensing via the caudal fin enables energy-efficient swimming by extracting flow energy.
A novel sensory-motor mechanism for schooling fish is proposed, independent of the lateral line system.
This research provides insights for developing efficient control strategies for robotic fish in complex flows.