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Fig. 1. Coupling test protocol. (A) During the pre-coupling period, only parallel fiber stimulus trains (see B) are given to test the AEN responsiveness before coupling. During the coupling period, an excitatory electrosensory stimulus is delivered simultaneously with each parallel fiber train either continuously for 5 min (continuous coupling) or, as illustrated here, in five short bouts of coupling separated by rest periods during which neither parallel fiber stimuli nor electrosensory stimuli are presented (episodic coupling). One coupling cycle is composed of one coupling period (30–60 s) and one resting period (1–9 min). At the bottom, the AEN activity throughout the experiment is illustrated as a raster plot. During the postcoupling period, parallel fiber stimulus trains are again given alone. (B) The duration of a single parallel fiber stimulus train is 250 ms and the inter-train interval is 2 s. Each train has six pulses, each 0.2 ms in duration (25 Hz intra-train frequency). The dipole electric field (2–10 µV, 250 ms) is presented simultaneously with each parallel fiber train. The AEN response to each parallel fiber train is defined as one trial. In tests with fin movement, a single cycle sinusoidal (1 Hz) passive fin movement replaces the parallel fiber stimulus train. S_t, number of spikes counted during the stimulation period; T_t, duration of the stimulation period in seconds; S_o, number of spikes counted during the arbitrary control interval outside the stimulation period; T_o, duration of the arbitrary control interval outside the stimulation period in seconds; see Eqn 1.

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