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Fish physiology

Dogfish hair cells sense hydrostatic pressure

Nature volume 415, pages 495–496 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Many marine invertebrates and fish respond to hydrostatic pressure in order to regulate their depth and synchronize their behaviour to tidal cycles1,2,3,4. Here we investigate the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the vestibular hair cells located in the labyrinth of the dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula, and find that it modulates their spontaneous activity and response to angular acceleration. This may explain not only the low resting activity of vertebrate hair cells but also how fish that do not have swim bladders can sense hydrostatic cues.

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Figure 1: Average extracellular spike frequencies from a small set of units from the dogfish right vestibular system during bouts of 64 oscillation cycles (top trace) and hydrostatic pressure (bottom trace) recorded every 2 min.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Aberdeen, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, 2TZ AB24, UK

    Peter J. Fraser & Richard L. Shelmerdine

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  1. Peter J. Fraser
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  2. Richard L. Shelmerdine
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Correspondence to Peter J. Fraser.

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Fraser, P., Shelmerdine, R. Dogfish hair cells sense hydrostatic pressure. Nature 415, 495–496 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/415495a

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