Data from: The effects of lateral line ablation and regeneration in schooling giant danios

Fish use multiple sensory systems, including vision and their lateral line system, to maintain position and speed within a school. Although previous studies have shown that ablating the lateral line alters schooling behavior, no one has examined how the behavior recovers as the sensory system regenerates. We studied how schooling behavior changes in giant danios Devario aequipinnatus when their lateral line system is chemically ablated and after the sensory hair cells regenerate. We found that fish could school normally immediately after chemical ablation, but that they had trouble schooling one to two weeks after the chemical treatment, when the hair cells had fully regenerated. We filmed groups of giant danios with two high-speed cameras and reconstructed the 3D positions of each fish within a group. One fish in the school was treated with gentamycin to ablate all hair cells. Both types of neuromasts, canal and superficial, were completely ablated after treatment but fully regenerated after one week. We quantified the structure of the school using nearest neighbor distance, bearing, elevation, and the cross-correlation of velocity between each pair of fish. Treated fish maintained a normal position within the school immediately after the lateral line ablation, but could not school normally one or two weeks after treatment, even though the neuromasts had fully regenerated. By four to eight weeks post-treatment, the treated fish could again school normally. These results demonstrate that the behavioral recovery after lateral line ablation is a longer process than the regeneration of the hair cells themselves.

鱼类依靠包括视觉与侧线系统（lateral line system）在内的多种感官系统，在鱼群中维持自身的游动位置与速度。尽管既往研究已证实损毁侧线系统会改变鱼群的集群行为，但尚无研究探讨该行为会如何随感官系统的再生而恢复。本研究以巨丹鱼（Devario aequipinnatus）为对象，探究其侧线系统经化学损毁后，以及感官毛细胞再生完成后，鱼群集群行为的变化情况。研究发现，鱼类在化学损毁侧线系统后即刻可正常集群，但在化学处理后的1至2周，即感官毛细胞已完全再生的阶段，却难以维持正常的集群行为。我们采用两台高速摄像机拍摄巨丹鱼群，并重构出鱼群中每条个体的三维空间位置。我们将鱼群中的一条个体施以庆大霉素（gentamycin）处理，以损毁其全部感官毛细胞。处理后，两类神经丘（neuromasts）——管系神经丘与浅表神经丘——均被完全损毁，但在1周后即可完全再生。我们通过最近邻距离、方位角、海拔高度，以及每两条鱼之间的速度互相关性，对鱼群结构进行量化分析。经处理的个体在侧线系统损毁后即刻可维持正常的鱼群位置，但在处理后1至2周，即便神经丘已完全再生，仍无法正常集群。直至处理后4至8周，经处理的个体才可重新恢复正常集群行为。本研究结果表明，侧线系统损毁后的行为恢复过程，比感官毛细胞本身的再生过程更为漫长。