QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online March 30, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 1548-1559 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02140

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Curcic-Blake, B. Articles by van Netten, S. M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Curcic-Blake, B. Articles by van Netten, S. M.

Source location encoding in the fish lateral line canal

Branislava uri-Blake and Sietse M. van Netten^*

University of Groningen, Neurobiophysics, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: s.m.van.netten{at}rug.nl)

Accepted 2 February 2006

The position of a hydrodynamic dipole source, as encoded in a linear array of mechano-detecting neuromasts in the fish lateral line canal, was electrophysiologically investigated. Measured excitation patterns along the lateral line were compared to theoretical predictions and were found to be in good agreement. The results demonstrate that information on the position of a vibrating source from a fish is linearly coded in the spatial characteristics of the excitation pattern of pressure gradients distributed along the lateral line canal. Several algorithms are discussed that could potentially be used by a fish to decode lateral line excitation patterns, in order to localise a source and its axis of vibration. Specifically, a wavelet transform of a 1-D excitation pattern is shown to reconstruct a 2-D image of dipole sources located within a distance comparable to the body length of a fish and with a close range spatial accuracy twice the inter-neuromast distance.

Key words: mechanodetector, hair cell, neuromast, linear array, hydrodynamics, dipole, pressure gradient, wavelet transform, decoding algorithm, Gymnocephalus cernuus

This article has been cited by other articles:

				W. J. Van Trump and M. J. McHenry The morphology and mechanical sensitivity of lateral line receptors in zebrafish larvae (Danio rerio) J. Exp. Biol., July 1, 2008; 211(13): 2105 - 2115. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Y. Yang, J. Chen, J. Engel, S. Pandya, N. Chen, C. Tucker, S. Coombs, D. L. Jones, and C. Liu Distant touch hydrodynamic imaging with an artificial lateral line PNAS, December 12, 2006; 103(50): 18891 - 18895. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]