The jamming avoidance response in Rhamphichthys rostratus: an alternative principle of time domain analysis in electric fish.

A Jamming Avoidance Response was found in the weakly electric fish Rhamphichthys rostratus, a South American pulse-Gymnotid. The analysis of the response suggests that it requires a key stimulus which is fundamentally different from that in previously described harmonic Gymnotids. It relies on a sensitivity for the direction of phase shifts of stimulus pulses relative to the fish's own electric organ discharge rather than on a sensitivity for beating frequencies.