Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0771-4642 : Dennis Higgs

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Publication Date

8-1-2023

Volume

154

Issue

2

First Page

772

Last Page

780

Keywords

Ultrasound, Auditory perception, Musical sound synthesis, Auditory recognition, Auditory system, Auditory threshold, Sound detection, Acoustic ecology, Anthropogenic, Auditory evoked potentials

DOI

10.1121/10.0020587

ISSN

00014966

Abstract

There exists a wealth of knowledge on hearing ability in individual fish species, but the role of interspecific variation, and drivers behind it, remains understudied, making it difficult to understand evolutionary drivers. The current study quantified hearing thresholds for three species of sunfish in the family Centrarchidae [bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus), pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus), and rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris)] using auditory evoked potentials and behavioral trials and saccular otolith size and hair cell density. In auditory physiological experiments, 10-ms tone bursts were played and responses monitored to measure hearing. In behavioral experiments, fish were exposed to the same tone bursts for 1 s, and changes in fish behaviors were monitored. Saccular otolith morphology and hair cell densities were also quantified. Physiological thresholds varied between species, but behavioral thresholds did not. Rock bass had larger S:O ratio (percentage of the saccular otolith surface occupied by the sulcus), but no differences in hair cell densities were found. Our study allows for a direct comparison between confamilial species, allowing a deeper understanding of sound detection abilities and possible mechanisms driving differential hearing. Using both approaches also allows future research into how these species may be impacted by increasing levels of anthropogenic noise.

E-ISSN

15208524

PubMed ID

37563826

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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