ZEJT.htm

NR ZEJT

AU Sharber,N.G.; Sharber Black,J.

TI Epilepsy as a Unifying Principle in Electrofishing Theory: A Proposal

QU Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 1999; 128: 666-671

PT journal article

AB Fisheries scientist have long studied the behavior of fish in electrified water. However, the science of electrofishing (the use of electricity to capture fish) evolved independently of other fields of science whose knowledge could have explained the behaviors of fish to electric shock. Theories to explain the behavior of organisms in electric fields developed out of two paradigms: classical stimulus-response (S-R) theory,l and "local action" of electrical energy on nerves and muscle fibers. Stimulus-response theories dominated in the late 19th Century; although they were abandoned by the early 20th Century by animal behaviorists they persisted in work with fish. An alternative theory, the "local action" paradigm, arose soon after 1900. Attribution galvanotropisms to the action of electricity on local nerves and muscle fibers, the local action theory remains in one form or another the main explanation for galvanotropisms today. However, neurologists have recognized for more than 100 years that electric stimulation of vertebrates causes epileptic seizures. Similar epileptic seizures are produced by alternating, direct and pulsed currents of any shape or frequency. The observed behaviors result from stimulation of the central nervous system, ot from local nerve and muscle responses. Spike-wave patterns of neural discharge on electroencephalograms, which are diagnostic of epilepsy, have been recorded in fish. Current electrofishing terms can be matched up with epileptic terminology: twitching, orientation, taxis and the turn or escape maneuver are automatisms; narcosis is a petit mal seizure; pseudo-forced swimming is due to tonic-clonic contractions, and tetany is a grand mal seizure. Spinal injuries are due to myoclonic jerks and happenearly in the seizure when automatisms occur. Also, patchy discoloration of the skin due to chromatophore activity is explainable as a result of sympathetic discharge during grand mal seizure. Epilepsy explains all of the phenonema seen in electroshocked fish.

SP englisch

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