Identification of electrical impedance tomography as simulation system emulating the electroreceptive system in aquatic animals

Some aquatic animals possess the ability to perceive electrical stimuli using an electroreceptive sense. This sense is used to detect prey, for navigation and communication, and determines the behavior of the animal. In order to evaluate the animal's behavior, a simulation system was conducted to mimic the electroreceptive sense. An Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) simulation with an accordingly to the fish's anatomy shaped ellipse electrode construction was considered to represent the animal's sense and was done testing the “model animal's” sensing level to a contrast object with varied distances. The distinguishability was assessed using a z-score, where greater z-values represent a better distinguishability. The simulation revealed, that the distinguishability decreases when the distance increases. Extended simulation settings using EIT can contribute to understand the animal's behavior and could help to gather information for animal-human interactions.