TY - JOUR
T1 - Coding of acoustic particle motion by utricular fibers in the sleeper goby, Dormitator latifrons
AU - Lu, Z.
AU - Xu, Z.
AU - Buchser, W. J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This work was supported by University of Miami startup funds and grants R29 DC03275 and R01 DC03275 from the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Hongsheng Zhang wrote the C++ program for the shaker calibration and data acquisition, and Brad Burkett wrote the program for terrain plots. Seth Tomchik and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on the manuscript. The animal care and use protocol used in this study complies with the Principles of Animal Care, publication No. 86-23, revised 1985 of the NIH, and was approved by the UM Animal Care and Use Committee.
PY - 2004/11
Y1 - 2004/11
N2 - It is unknown whether the fish utricle contributes to directional hearing. Here, we report response properties of single utricular fibers in a teleost fish (Dormitator latifrons) to linear accelerations at various stimulus frequencies and axes. Characteristic frequencies ranged from ≤ 50-400 Hz (median = 80 Hz), and best frequencies shifted from 50 to 250 Hz with stimulus level. Best sensitivity of utricular fibers was distributed from -70 to -40 dB re: 1 g (mean = -52 dB), which is about 30 dB less sensitive than saccular fibers. Q 50% fell between 0.16 and 11.50 (mean = 2.04) at 15 dB above threshold. We observed temporal response patterns of entrained phase-locking, double phase-locking, phase-locked bursting, and non-phase-locked bursting. Most utricular fibers were directionally selective with various directional response profiles, and directional selectivity was stimulus-level dependent. Horizontal best-response axes were distributed in a 152° range while mid-sagittal best-response axes were clustered around the fish longitudinal axis, which is consistent with the horizontal orientation of the utricle and morphological polarizations of utricular hair cells. Therefore, results of this study indicate that the utricle in this vertebrate plays an auditory role in azimuth and that utricular fibers extend the response dynamic range of this species in directional hearing.
AB - It is unknown whether the fish utricle contributes to directional hearing. Here, we report response properties of single utricular fibers in a teleost fish (Dormitator latifrons) to linear accelerations at various stimulus frequencies and axes. Characteristic frequencies ranged from ≤ 50-400 Hz (median = 80 Hz), and best frequencies shifted from 50 to 250 Hz with stimulus level. Best sensitivity of utricular fibers was distributed from -70 to -40 dB re: 1 g (mean = -52 dB), which is about 30 dB less sensitive than saccular fibers. Q 50% fell between 0.16 and 11.50 (mean = 2.04) at 15 dB above threshold. We observed temporal response patterns of entrained phase-locking, double phase-locking, phase-locked bursting, and non-phase-locked bursting. Most utricular fibers were directionally selective with various directional response profiles, and directional selectivity was stimulus-level dependent. Horizontal best-response axes were distributed in a 152° range while mid-sagittal best-response axes were clustered around the fish longitudinal axis, which is consistent with the horizontal orientation of the utricle and morphological polarizations of utricular hair cells. Therefore, results of this study indicate that the utricle in this vertebrate plays an auditory role in azimuth and that utricular fibers extend the response dynamic range of this species in directional hearing.
KW - Auditory
KW - Directional hearing
KW - Ear
KW - Fish
KW - Otolithic organ
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=11244353299&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00359-004-0550-3
DO - 10.1007/s00359-004-0550-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 15316732
AN - SCOPUS:11244353299
SN - 0340-7594
VL - 190
SP - 923
EP - 938
JO - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
JF - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
IS - 11
ER -