Electric organ

An electric organ is tissue made of electrically active cells that produces biological electric fields. In some animals, its discharges support defense, prey capture, communication, or sensing.

Electrocyte: A specialized cell that produces voltage changes used in an electric organ. Stacks or arrays of these cells generate the organ’s electrical output.
Electrolocation: The detection of nearby objects through changes they cause in an animal’s electric field. Weakly electric fish use organ-generated fields to map their surroundings.
Muscle tissue: Contractile tissue composed of cells specialized for producing force. Many vertebrate electric organs evolved from muscle tissue that lost its contractile function.
Electric eel: A South American knifefish capable of producing powerful electric discharges. Its large electric organs generate high-voltage shocks for hunting and defense.
Action potential: A rapid, temporary reversal of a cell’s membrane voltage that propagates along excitable membranes. Action potentials synchronize electrocytes to produce a discharge.
Electrocommunication: Communication through changes in electric signals produced by an animal. Electric fish use discharge timing and waveform patterns to signal one another.
Membrane potential: The voltage difference between the inside and outside of a cell membrane. Electrocytes generate organ voltage by changing their membrane potentials.
Electric ray: A ray with paired electric organs derived from modified muscle tissue. Its organs flank the head and produce shocks used to capture prey and deter threats.
Ion channel: A membrane protein that allows selected ions to cross a cell membrane. Ion channels create the voltage changes that power electrocytes.
Electroreception: The detection of electrical fields by sensory systems. Organ discharges can create fields that animals sense themselves or that receivers detect.

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