Corollary discharge is an important brain function that allows animals to distinguish external from self-generated signals, which is critical to sensorimotor coordination. Since discovery of the concept of corollary discharge in 1950, neuroscientists have sought to elucidate underlying neural circuits and mechanisms. Here, we review a history of neurophysiological studies on corollary discharge and highlight significant contributions from studies using African mormyrid weakly electric fish. Mormyrid fish generate brief electric pulses to communicate with other fish and to sense their surroundings. In addition, mormyrids can passively locate weak, external electric signals. These three behaviors are mediated by different corollary discharge functions including inhibition, enhancement, and predictive “negative image” generation. Owing to several experimental advantages of mormyrids, investigations of these mechanisms have led to important general principles that have proven applicable to a wide diversity of animal species.

推论放电是一种重要的大脑功能，它使动物能够将外部信号与自身产生的信号区分开，这对于感觉运动协调至关重要。自从1950年发现必然放电的概念以来，神经科学家就试图阐明潜在的神经回路和机制。在这里，我们回顾了神经生物学研究的必然结果，并着重指出了使用非洲mormyrid弱电鱼的研究的重大贡献。Mormyrid鱼会产生短暂的电脉冲，以与其他鱼交流并感知其周围环境。此外，蠕虫可以被动地定位微弱的外部电信号。这三种行为由不同的推论放电功能介导，包括抑制，增强和预测性“负像”生成。