Medullary electrosensory processing in the little skate. I. Response characteristics of neurons in the dorsal octavolateralis nucleus.

1. Ampullary electroreceptors in elasmobranchs are innervated by fibers of the ALLN, which projects to the dorsal octavolateralis nucleus (DON). The purpose of this study is to examine the response characteristics of ALLN fibers and DON neurons to weak D.C. and sinusoidal electric field stimuli presented as local dipole fields. 2. ALLN fibers respond to presentation of D.C. fields with a phasic burst, followed by a more slowly adapting period of firing. Ascending efferent neurons (AENs) in the DON respond to stimuli with a similar initial burst, which adapts more quickly. 3. Type 1, 2, and 3 neurons are possible local interneurons or commissural DON neurons. Type 1 neurons demonstrate response properties similar to those of AENs. Type 2 cells demonstrated slowly adapting responses to excitatory stimuli, the duration of the response increased with the amplitude of the stimulus. Type 3 neurons demonstrated an increased rate of firing, but the response lacked any specific temporal characteristics. 4. ALLN fibers typically have receptive fields consisting of a single ampulla. The receptive field sizes of DON neurons exhibited varying degrees of convergence for different cell types. 5. Responses of ALLN fibers and DON neurons to weak sinusoidal stimuli demonstrated very similar frequency response characteristics for all cell types. The peak sensitivity of electrosensory neurons was between 5-10 Hz.