Affiliation:
1. Parmly Hearing Institute, Loyola University Chicago, 6525 North Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60626, USA
Abstract
The problems associated with the detection of sounds and other mechanical disturbances in the aquatic environment differ greatly from those associated with airborne sounds. The differences are primarily due to the incompressibility of water and the corresponding increase in importance of the acoustic near field. The near field, or hydrodynamic field, is characterized by steep spatial gradients in pressure, and detection of the accelerations associated with these gradients is performed by both the inner ear and the lateral line systems of fishes. Acceleration–sensitive otolithic organs are present in all fishes and provide these animals with a form of inertial audition. The detection of pressure gradients, by both the lateral line and inner ear, is the taxonomically most widespread mechanism of sound–source detection amongst vertebrates, and is thus the most likely primitive mode of detecting sound sources. Surprisingly, little is known about the capabilities of either the lateral line or the otolithic endorgan in the detection of vibratory dipole sources. Theoretical considerations for the overlapping roles of the inner ear and lateral line systems in midwater predict that the lateral line will operate over a shorter distance range than the inner ear, although with a much greater spatial resolution. Our empirical results of dipole detection by mottled sculpin, a benthic fish, do not agree with theoretical predictions based on midwater fishes, in that the distance ranges of the two systems appear to be approximately equal. This is almost certainly as a result of physical coupling between the fishes and the substrate. Thus, rather than having a greater active range, the inner ear appears to have a reduced distance range in benthic fishes, and the lateral line distance range may be concomitantly extended.
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Reference11 articles.
1. Cahn P. H. (ed.) 1967 Lateral line detectors. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.
2. Coombs S. & Braun C. B. 2000 Canal neuromasts mediate orientation to prey in Lake Michigan mottled sculpin. Soc. Neurosci. Abst. (In the press.)
3. Mechanical factors in the excitation of clupeid lateral lines
4. THE FUNCTIONING and SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LATERAL-LINE ORGANS
5. Fay R. R. 1984 The gold¢sh ear codes the axis of acoustic particle motion in three dimensions. Science 225 951^954.
Cited by
43 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献