Nervous system in fishes

Like other vertebrates, the fishes have a well developed nervous system for coordination of
various activities of their body and external environment.

Nervous system in fishes is divided into:

 Central nervous system

 Peripheral nervous system
 Autonomic nervous system
Central Nervous system

 The central nervous system consists of brain and spinal cord.

 Fish brain is an enlargement of anterior end of the spinal cord, enclosed in a protective
cranium.
 Size of brains in most of fishes are small relative to their body size as compared to other
vertebrates, about 1/15th the mass of a same sized bird or mammal.

Fish brain is divisible in three regions:

 Procencephalon or forebrain
 Mesencephalon or midbrain
 Rhombencephalon or hindbrain

Fore Brain (Procencephalon)

The fore brain consists of two parts: (a) Telencephalon, (b) Diencephalon

Telencephalon

 Telencephalon is an anterior most part of fore brain and acts for reception and conduction
of smell.
 The anterior lateral position of telencephalon occupied by the olfactory lobes. In some
fishes the olfactory lobes are anteriorly projected as olfactory bulbs.
 There are considerable variations in the structure of olfactory part in different group of
fishes.
 Some fishes possess both parts i.e., olfactory lobes and bulbs, in others, only olfactory
bulbs are present whereas some species contain only olfactory lobes.
 Those fishes depend mainly on smell for searching the food or social activities have
comparatively enlarged olfactory lobe.
 Reception of smell is the main function of the fore brain.
  Telencephalon also performs and coordinates functions viz. migration, parental care and
breeding behavior, and learning.

Diencephalon

 It is a median diamond shaped area between cerebral hemisphere and the optic lobes.
 Diencephalon can be divisible into three parts epithalamus, thalamus, and hypothalamus.
 In epithalamus, two ganglionic masses are present which are called habenulae.
 Pineal body is located in invaginations in the roof of diencephalon.
 Bellow the hypothalamus, hypophysis lies called the pitutary gland.
 A pair of optic nerves enters the brain in the antero-dorsal part of diencephalon forming
an optic chiasma in front of the diencephalon by crossing each other.
 Several functions are performed by diencephalon such as control of endocrine system of
body and reception of diffused light stimuli etc.

Midbrain (Mesencephalon)

 Midbrain is relatively large.

 Mesencephalon has dorsal optic tectum and ventral tegmentum.
 The mid brain in higher bony fishes (actinopterygii) is very large.
 Optic tectum has two optic lobes.
 Optic nerve fibres end in the tectum and form image of objects by the eye of fish.
 Fishes that feed by sight possess large optic lobe.
 Optic tectum contains a protuberance at the mid ventral part termed as torus
longitudinalis, which maintains the sense of equilibrium and the sense of vision.
 Optic tectum acts as eye-body coordinating centre and compensates the absence of a true
optic chiasma of bony fishes.
Hindbrain (Rhombencephalon)
 The hindbrain consists of cerebellum (metencephalon) and medulla oblongata
(mylencephalon).
 The cerebellum is more prominent in chondrichthyes and bony fishes than cyclostomes.

Cerebellum (Metencephalon):
 Cerebellum is variously built in different group of fishes.
 In some fishes cerebellum is the largest part of brain.
 In higher osteichthyes fishes cerebellum forms valvula cerebella extending under optic
tectum.
 Elasmobranchs show an increase in size of cerebellum as compared to the Cyclostomes.
 The electric current discharging fishes have well developed cerebellum.
 The cavity of the cerebellum is known as metacoel, which is prominent in Elasmobranchs
and is completely disappeared in cerebellum of higher bony fishes.
 The main functions of the cerebellum are to control swimming equilibration, maintenance
and co-ordination of muscular tonus, and orientation in space.

Medulla Oblongata (Myelencephalon):

 Posterior most part of hind brain is medulla oblongata.

 The medulla is divisible into columns of nerve fibres based on the types of information
transmitted.
 The medulla contains nuclei of cranial nerves from III to X, arranged anteroposteriorly.
 The different parts of medulla are enlarged with the development of various senses.
 The medulla contains a cavity inside, known as the fourth ventricle.
 The medulla of higher bony fishes (Actinopterygii) has a pair of large neurons called the
giant cells.
 These cells are present at the level of cranial nerve VIII and transmit multiple sensory
impulses mainly from lateral-line centers to the caudal and swimming muscles of body.
 Medulla also has some centers that control a number of somatic and visceral functions. In
bony fishes these functions includes respiratory and osmoregulatory.

Spinal cord

 The basic structure of spinal cord in fishes resembles to that of higher vertebrates.
 Originates from hind brain and extend to whole length of the fish body in the dorsal
neural canal of the vertebral column.
 Transverse section of spinal cord clearly shows two separate regions, i.e. central and
peripheral.
 The central region spinal cord composed of numerous nerve cells and appears grey and
called grey matter, which roughly resembles letter ‘X’.
  The peripheral region of spinal cord surrounds the grey matter, contains large number of
myelinated nerve fibres and is known as white matter.
 The centre of grey matter is occupied by a central canal, which is filled with
cerebrospinal fluid. The cerebrospinal fluid is secreted by the brain.
 The grey matter has an anterior, posterior and lateral columns or horns from where the
spinal nerve fibres enter or leave the spinal cord.
Peripheral Nervous System

Besides, the brain and spinal cord, other nervous tissues are known as peripheral nervous system.
Peripheral nervous system consists of nerves originated from brain (cranial nerves) and spinal
cord (spinal nerves), and special sense organs.

Cranial nerves

There are ten pairs of cranial nerves in fishes emerged from brain.

Ist: Olfactory Nerve

 This is the sensory nerve. It starts from the olfactory bulb and innervates snout. This
nerve carries smell impulses to the brain.
nd
II : Optic Nerve
 It is a sensory nerve, originates from optic tectum of midbrain and innervates retina of
eye. This nerve carries visual impulses.
rd
III ; Oculomotor
 It arises from optic tectum of midbrain and supplies to superior, inferior, anterior, rectus
and inferior oblique muscles of eyeball. It is somatic motor nerve.
th
IV : Trochlear
 Trochlear arises from dorso lateral side of mid brain and innervates superior oblique
muscle of the eye ball.
th
V : Trigeminal
 This is one of the largest nerve arises from the antero-lateral sides of the medulla
oblongata.
 It is mixed nerve of sensory and motor. It divides into three main trunks ophthalmic,
maxillary and mandibular nerves.
 The ophthalmic nerve has two branches opthalmicus superficialis and ophthalmicus
profundus. These nerves innervate anterior part of head, upper and lower jaws.
VIth: Abducens
 It starts from the ventral sides of the medulla oblongata and goes to the lateral rectus
muscle the eye ball
th
VII : Facial:
 It arises from the sides of medulla oblongata. It is truly mixed nerve and divided into
three branches, supra-orbital, infra-orbital and the hyomandibular.
 The supra-orbital further divides into nerves ophthalmicus superficialis trigeminalis and
ophthalmicus superficialis facialis and innervate lateral line system.
 The infra-orbital branch goes ventral to supra-orbital and divides into four nerves
maxillaries, buccalis, mandibularis and palatine.
 The hyomandibular branch runs behind the mandibular nerve and supplies to lower jaw.
VIIIth: Auditory
 It originates from sides of medulla and runs behind the facial.
 It has two branches both are sensory in nature. (i) Vestibular nerve which goes to
utricular and ampullae of internal ear. (ii) Saccular nerve goes to sacculus and lagena.
th
IX : Glossopharyngeal
 It arises from the ventro-lateral side of medulla oblongata and close to the Xth nerve. It is
a mixed nerve and supplies to the hyoid arch, muscles of first gill slit and the taste bud.
th
X : Vagus
 This is a mixed nerve, emerged from medulla just behind the glossopharyngeal.
 It divides into five branches: (i) Supra-temporal branch (ii) Dorsal recurrent branch (iii)
Body lateral line branch (iv) Visceral branch (v) Branchial branch.
Spinal Nerves

 Spinal nerves are also the part of peripheral nervous system arise directly from spinal
cord and arranged metamerically in the body of fishes.
 Each Spinal Nerve contains two roots: posterior sensory root with its ganglion and
anterior motor root.
 The posterior root is composed mostly of sensory fibres from nerve cells in the spinal
nerve ganglion and connects it with the central nervous system.
 The motor fibres passing through the anterior root have their cell bodies in the grey
matter of the spinal cord.
 Spinal nerves performs various functions such as muscles contraction, gland secretion
etc.
Autonomic Nervous System:
 The autonomic nervous system is broadly divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic
nervous system.
 The autonomic nerves of teleost are much similar to that of land vertebrates.
 In the Elasmobranchii, irregular sympathetic ganglia are found along the sides of
vertebral column, they do not extend into the head region.
 In bony fishes, segmental arranged ganglia form a sympathetic as for forward as the
trigeminal cranial nerve V.
 Sympathetic connection to the skin nerves are found in the highest bony fishes.
 The autonomic nerves in fishes control the aperture of iris, blood pressure, blood flow
through gills, heart performance, gastric motility, function of swim bladder and secretion
of catecholamines from the chromaffin.
 Widely branched well organized vegus nerve .
 There is no apparent parasympathetic system present in both cartilaginous and bony
fishes.

Lateral line canal and neuromast

 Lateral line organs are only found in fishes and in some stages (branchiate stages/aquatic
stages) of amphibians.
 The receptor organ of lateral line system is the neuromast.
 Neuromasts are group of sensory and support cells encapsulated within a jellylike sheath
called the cupula.
 Each sensory cell/hair cell, contain several small cilia, and each cilium may be stimulated
by water movement.
 The hair cells are modified epithelial cells and consist of about 40-50 microvilli.
 There are two different types of neuromasts on the basis of their location, superficial
neuromasts and canal neuromasts.
  Superficial neuromasts present on the surface of the skin and arranged in lines or cluster
on the head, trunk and tail fins.
 Canal neuromasts present in canals on fishes at heads and trunk. The fluid inside the
canals contacts the surrounding water via a series of canal pores.
 Function of canal neuromasts are pressure detector between associated canal pores.
 Lateral‐line canal system of fishes comprises of the supra and infraorbital, the otic and
postotic and the mandibular and preopercular canals at cephalic region and together with
lateral‐line canals of the two body sides, make the lateral line system.
 With the help of lateral line system fish can determine the direction and rate of water
movement. The fish can sense of its own movement, and movement of predators or prey,
and even the any kind of water displacement.

References:
Fundamentals of Ichthyology by S.P. Biswas,
Ichthyology by Lagler et al,
Freely available materials on internet