Brenowitz E A
Brain Behav Evol. 1986;28(1-3):32-42. doi: 10.1159/000118690.
Animal communication in any sensory modality is influenced by environmental constraints on signal transmission and detection. Acoustic signals are subject to frequency-dependent attenuation, temporal degradation, and masking by environmental noise; these factors constrain the spectral and temporal structures of long-range sound signals. Signals produced by electric fish are largely free of such physical environmental constraints on their spectral and temporal structures, but experience severe attenuation due to geometrical spreading. This effectively limits electric communication to short ranges, whereas acoustic signals are more flexible in the range over which they are effective.
任何感觉模态下的动物交流都受到信号传输和检测的环境限制的影响。声学信号会受到与频率相关的衰减、时间退化以及环境噪声的掩蔽；这些因素限制了远程声音信号的频谱和时间结构。电鱼产生的信号在频谱和时间结构上基本不受此类物理环境限制，但会因几何扩展而经历严重衰减。这有效地将电通信限制在短距离内，而声学信号在其有效范围内则更具灵活性。
