In Madrid, neuroscientists have made a groundbreaking discovery about the ability of a tiny fish to locate sound sources underwater. Humans struggle with this skill because sound travels much faster underwater and it’s challenging to determine where a sound is coming from. However, fish such as the Danielle’s brain fish, native to southern Myanmar, are able to locate sound sources as prey or predators.
Professor Benjamin Judkewitz and his team in Berlin have been studying the Danielle’s brain fish for years, using its transparent body to explore questions about nerve cell communication and the development of the sense of hearing. The team discovered that existing directional hearing models are not sufficient underwater, where sound that is emitted from a source propagates through the environment as movement and pressure oscillations.
To understand how fish can locate sound sources underwater, the team built underwater speakers and played loud noises to observe their responses. They found that fish like the Danielle’s brain fish can detect the direction of sound by perceiving the speed of particles in the water rather than just sound pressure like humans do. By using a specially designed laser scanning microscope, researchers were able to reveal how the fish’s inner ear structures respond to sound and help them determine its direction.
Their research confirmed a spatial hearing model from 1970s showing that fish like Danielle’s brainfish use speed of particles in water to locate sound sources underwater. By analyzing movement of particles as function of sound pressure, they can determine direction of a sound source. Additionally, researchers found that fish can be tricked into perceiving reversed sounds pressures further supporting their findings about how fish locate sounds underwater.
This discovery opens up new avenues for research into animal auditory systems and could potentially lead to advancements in human understanding and technology related to underwater acoustics.
)
