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Insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations

Elasmobranch fishes are among a broad range of taxa believed to gain positional information and navigate using the earth’s magnetic field, yet in sharks, much remains uncertain regarding the sensory receptors and pathways involved, or the exact nature of perceived stimuli. Captive sandbar sharks, Ca...

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Autores principales: Anderson, James M., Clegg, Tamrynn M., Véras, Luisa V. M. V. Q., Holland, Kim N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5591188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28887553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11459-8
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author Anderson, James M.
Clegg, Tamrynn M.
Véras, Luisa V. M. V. Q.
Holland, Kim N.
author_facet Anderson, James M.
Clegg, Tamrynn M.
Véras, Luisa V. M. V. Q.
Holland, Kim N.
author_sort Anderson, James M.
collection PubMed
description Elasmobranch fishes are among a broad range of taxa believed to gain positional information and navigate using the earth’s magnetic field, yet in sharks, much remains uncertain regarding the sensory receptors and pathways involved, or the exact nature of perceived stimuli. Captive sandbar sharks, Carcharhinus plumbeus were conditioned to respond to presentation of a magnetic stimulus by seeking out a target in anticipation of reward (food). Sharks in the study demonstrated strong responses to magnetic stimuli, making significantly more approaches to the target (p = < 0.01) during stimulus activation (S+) than before or after activation (S−). Sharks exposed to reversible magnetosensory impairment were less capable of discriminating changes to the local magnetic field, with no difference seen in approaches to the target under the S+ and S− conditions (p = 0.375). We provide quantified detection and discrimination thresholds of magnetic stimuli presented, and quantify associated transient electrical artefacts. We show that the likelihood of such artefacts serving as the stimulus for observed behavioural responses was low. These impairment experiments support hypotheses that magnetic field perception in sharks is not solely performed via the electrosensory system, and that putative magnetoreceptor structures may be located in the naso-olfactory capsules of sharks.
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spelling pubmed-55911882017-09-13 Insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations Anderson, James M. Clegg, Tamrynn M. Véras, Luisa V. M. V. Q. Holland, Kim N. Sci Rep Article Elasmobranch fishes are among a broad range of taxa believed to gain positional information and navigate using the earth’s magnetic field, yet in sharks, much remains uncertain regarding the sensory receptors and pathways involved, or the exact nature of perceived stimuli. Captive sandbar sharks, Carcharhinus plumbeus were conditioned to respond to presentation of a magnetic stimulus by seeking out a target in anticipation of reward (food). Sharks in the study demonstrated strong responses to magnetic stimuli, making significantly more approaches to the target (p = < 0.01) during stimulus activation (S+) than before or after activation (S−). Sharks exposed to reversible magnetosensory impairment were less capable of discriminating changes to the local magnetic field, with no difference seen in approaches to the target under the S+ and S− conditions (p = 0.375). We provide quantified detection and discrimination thresholds of magnetic stimuli presented, and quantify associated transient electrical artefacts. We show that the likelihood of such artefacts serving as the stimulus for observed behavioural responses was low. These impairment experiments support hypotheses that magnetic field perception in sharks is not solely performed via the electrosensory system, and that putative magnetoreceptor structures may be located in the naso-olfactory capsules of sharks. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-09-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5591188/ /pubmed/28887553 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11459-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Anderson, James M.
Clegg, Tamrynn M.
Véras, Luisa V. M. V. Q.
Holland, Kim N.
Insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations
title Insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations
title_full Insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations
title_fullStr Insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations
title_full_unstemmed Insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations
title_short Insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations
title_sort insight into shark magnetic field perception from empirical observations
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5591188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28887553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11459-8
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