Experiment with electric fish

Here are some of the latest images from the Enki project…

The main view of the experiment chamber. The Enki installation at Cornerhouse is now up and running. There are experiments by appointment every 15mins, and all the data is being collected.

It has taken me ages to make these comms units, they contain16 interconnecting cables within a noise reducing or shielded structure.

The Table has two monitors one from the fish room and one from the human room. You can speak to the person in the experiment via a mic.

Inside the sound proofed room for the human there is a chair and the sensor interface.

There is a window into the fish room on the side of the chamber

The room containing the fish is electrically shielded.

air ray

Been doing some reserch into creating my own ROV type aquatic robot – found these excellent projects by FESTO a german company

Also there is an Air Jelly…
“FESTO AirJelly http://www.festo.com/cms/de_de/5890.htm This new concept of a jelly fish that flies through the air has been presented by Festo at the 2008 Hannover Messe in Germany. Please read out blogpost http://airshipworld.blogspot.com/2008/04/let-jelly-fish-…”

Brain waves

In preperation for the next ENKi event, me and Greg spent the day testing the neuro-graphic interface; as an experiment we patched a strong frequency via MIDI to a MAX patch so our brains were modulating all kinds of strange sounds. I dont yet fully understand MIDI – but Later this will combine with the enki interface as a form of feedback.  In this image you can see the  graphics of the brain activity and the  receiver boxes – the sensors are wireless and stuck to our foreheads.

Robo-fin

These projects investigate numerous applications of Neurophysiology, Sensor based motion guidance, experimental methods include measurement of the propulsion capabilities of robotic models of electric fish “We’ve developed a hypothesis regarding why active sensing animals such as electric fish, bats, and rats tend to have highly accurate spatial maps of their surround. We are testing this hypothesis using fish mazes.”

the robo-fin is a robot based on the sinusoidal fin movements of the knife fish.

“Our research group pursues both empirical and modeling efforts in mechanics and neurobiology, integrating the two together within simulation environments.”

http://www.neuromech.northwestern.edu/uropatagium/

neurostimulation and fish

The earliest recorded human effort at neuro-stimulation appears to have been that of the Mesopotamian healer Scribonius Largus 47AD (?) who used electrical currents to produce transient pain relief.

By either the direct application of electrical torpedo fish (eels, of the type shown below) to the human body or by placing painful extremities into a pool of water containing torpedo fish the resulting electrical shocks stunned the nervous system allowing an immediate and residual numbness in the extremity.

In this application electrical torpedo fish were the very first means of achieving transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for therapeutic purposes. This form of treatment was particularly popular for the treatment of gouty arthritis.

Pliny (AD 61-113) commented on the fact that while the torpedo fish was not itself sluggish, it could induce sluggishness in other fish. He also detailed how to extract the medicinal magic of the torpedo fish into oils and ointments used for various ailments, or more popularly either to cool lust or to induce love.

In Plato’s (428-348 BC) dialoge Meno Socrates is told “you seem both in appearance and in your power over others to be like a torpedo fish, who torpifies those who come near him, as you have now torpified me, I think. For my soul and my tongue are really torpid and I do not know how to answer you.”

The affects of a shock from the electric Torpedo Fish, which lived in the Mediterranean, were well known. What caused of the affects was not. Aristotle (384-322 BC) said that the torpedo fish “narcotize” its prey.

Shielded Tents

Shielded Tents are based on the Faraday cage principle and are used to cut out electromagnetic interference – (wif, phone signals etc)

I have been considering using one of these to put people in while they interface with the fish. People have been making foil lined clothes to block out RFID scanners – so I am thinking I will need to make my own cage using a foil lining. as these cages are well expensive.
http://www.hollandshielding.com/faraday/shieldedtents.php

Neuromechanical Design

Any one keeping electric fish will note the particular and strange way they float around the tank swimming backwards and rolling from side to side – this research presents some interesting Neuromechanical explanations and visualizations of this…
http://www.cnse.caltech.edu/Research/reports/maciver-full.html

What is neuroethology?

[ by Carl Hopkins] “Neuroethology is the biological approach to the study of the neural basis of behavior. Thus, the focus is on the role of the nervous system in behavior, but the perspective is that which is called ‘ethological’. The ethological approach emphasizes the causation, the development, the evolution, and the function of behavior and neuroethologists seek to understand this in terms of neural circuits. Neuroethology is the study of natural behavior, which, in the older scientific literature, was called “instinctive behavior” or “innate behavior”. Neuroethologists base their studies on behavioral studies that often are done in the field on the animal’s own turf.”

electrical tracking systems

I found this article on http://www.jyi.org/news/nb.php?id=905 JYI, Inc. is a exciting, student-led initiative to broaden the scope of the undergraduate scientific experience. The experiment sounds quite interesting. The evolution of the mono-fin is apparently to minimize distortion if the fishes body while swimming (tis is one theory anyway) – and this suggests that it can also compensate for the swaying movements of plants purely through sensory response?

“Electric” Fish Illuminate How Brain Directs Movement
“Two properties of the fish, called glass knifefish, made them ideal for motion studies. First, the nocturnal fish “see” in the dark by emitting weak electric signals and gathering feedback through special electroreceptors in their brain cells. Second, the fish are capable of moving back and forth in a small tube, a behavior crucial to the study design.

The researchers used robotics to move a small plastic tube back and forth with increasing frequency. The fish, which used the tube as a hiding place, performed an electrical tracking technique to stay hidden in the tube as it moved. But the fish could only process the speed of the moving tube below a frequency of one motion per second (1Hz), a quality scientists describe as “low-pass” since receptors in brain cells only detect frequencies lower than a certain limit.

electro-sensitivity in sharks

The hammer head shark has to be the best looking of the sharks – I have only seen them on the “Blue planet” series – I was intrigued at the massive shoals where they seem to perform this odd twitch where the body flexes almost like a spasm – i was wandering if this has anything to do with generating a pulse of electricity that other sharks can detect? as thses sharks are not electrically active – but can only detect the electrical signals of muscle activity – such as small creatures under the sand….

“The ampullae of Lorenzini give the shark electrosense. The ampullae consist of small clusters of electrically sensitive receptor cells positioned under the skin in the shark’s head. These cells are connected to pores on the skin’s surface via small jelly-filled tubes. Scientists still don’t yet understand everything about these ampullary organs, but they do know the sensors let sharks “see” the weak electrical fields generated by living organisms. The range of electrosense seems to be fairly limited — a few feet in front of the shark’s nose — but this is enough to seek out fish and other prey hiding on the ocean floor.”

http://science.howstuffworks.com/shark2.htm

Electro-location in fish

Nelson Lab is one of the best recourses for information on the electric fish – it has also the most advanced computer visualizations of EOD discharge during prey capture…

“Computer reconstruction of electrosensory images
By combining the physical principles of electrosensory image formation and our knowledge of the response properties of electrosensory afferent nerve fibers, we can use computer models to reconstruct electrosensory images observed by the fish during electrolocation. The figure below shows a computer reconstructed image sequence from our prey capture studies. “

Fish Perform Spatial Pattern Recognition and Abstraction

I have been fascinated by this project – Part 2 of the ENKI project will be based around this particular experiment…

Christian Graff, Gwenaël Kaminski, Michael Gresty, and Théophile Ohlmann

“We presented the fishes with different spatial structures, each consisting of a similar tube of insulating material, with eight electrodes set into the inside surface of the tube and wired to a switchboard outside the tank. Depending on the way electrodes were externally interconnected, these assemblies created different “shapes” in space. The shapes were 3D patterns of distortion in the electrical flux issuing from the fish’s electric organ. They formed virtual objects or places that could not be distinguished by visual, mechanical, or chemical means but only existed through electricity, similar to the way in which virtual objects or places on a TV screen only exist through light. In order to perform our tasks, the fish had to actively explore the maze by “scanning” with its electrical field and sensing distortion patterns caused by sinks and sources of flux.”

http://www.sciencedirect.com Current Biology
Volume 14, Issue 9, 4 May 2004, Pages 818-823

Laboratories – electric fish

These are some of the leading research labs working with electric fish Neurobiology & Behavior; Good sources for essential information and also some great publications. and have provided much of the background for my project

apteronote.com Aptéronote – Mariage aquatique de la physique et de la biologie – Les caractéristiques des poissons faiblement électriques – les gymnotiformes – On y discute leurs comportements, système electrosensoriel, capacité de communication électrique, electroreception et le fonctionnement du cerveau.

Hopkins Lab, Department of Neurobiology & Behavior, Cornell University.
Research in this lab concerns the neural basis of animal communication, including studies of mechanisms of signal generation, signal localization, and signal recognition in the context of species recognition. Our focus is on communication in the electrosensory modality of fish

amazonian-fish.co.uk
Amazonian Fishes and their Habitat

Nelson Lab
Our research is focused on active sensory acquisition. We seek to understand neural mechanisms and computational principles that animals use t o actively acquire sensory information in complex, dynamic environments

ENKI demonstartion

ENKI interface
Test and demonstration of prototype

My self and Gregory Byatt ran this event last year – and are due to do it again this year – only a bit differently – the thing will hopefully sue more visualization and actively use the neuro-feedback (through interfacing it with MAX MSP)

Documentation of first event;
Museum of Science and Industry Manchester, 7th October 2006

A multi media participatory experiment using live Electric Fish, real time neurographic interface visualising brain-wave activity, sound and live video. ENKI is an immersive sensory experience that explores the relationship between art and health, or more specifically, creates a therapeutic exchange between Humans and Electric Fish. It is part the HFID project dedicated to research in cross species (human and fish) communication and commune.

See the film here…
The participants become part of experimental research, as we record brain wave data and monitor the behaviour of the electric fish during the experiment. The electrical activity of the fish is experienced as sound and light via ENKI (a stroboscopic high frequency led placed close to eye lid) and the natural binaural frequencies produce by the interaction and communication between Black Ghost Knife fish. Participants bio-electric field is connected to the aquarium allowing the fish to sense a human (bio)electric image or presence.