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Peripheral and central processing of lateral line information

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Abstract

The lateral line is a hydrodynamic sensory system that allows fishes and aquatic amphibians to detect the water motions caused, for instance, by conspecifics, predators or prey. Typically the peripheral lateral line of fishes consists of several hundred neuromasts spread over the head, trunk, and tail fin. Lateral line neuromasts are mechanical low-pass filters that have an operating range from <1 Hz up to about 150 Hz. Within this frequency range, neuromasts encode the duration, local direction, amplitude, frequency, and phase of a hydrodynamic stimulus. This paper reviews the peripheral and central processing of lateral line information in fishes. Special attention is given to the coding of simple and complex hydrodynamic stimuli, to parallel processing, the roles of the various brain areas that process hydrodynamic information and the centrifugal (efferent) control of lateral line information. The review argues that in order to fully comprehend peripheral and central lateral line information processing, it is imperative to do comparative studies that take into account the ecology of fishes, meaning that natural stimulus and noise conditions have to be considered.

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Abbreviations

ALLN:

Anterior lateral line nerve

CN:

Canal neuromast

MON :

Medial octavolateralis nucleus

PLLN :

Posterior lateral line nerve

SN:

Superficial neuromast

RF:

Receptive field

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful for the wonderful time he was allowed to spend in the laboratory of Ted Bullock. I thank J. Mogdans and R. Zelick for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. The original research of the author was generously supported by the DFG, the BMBF, DARPA, the BfG, DAAD, and the EU.

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  1. Institute of Zoology, University of Bonn, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    H. Bleckmann

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Bleckmann, H. Peripheral and central processing of lateral line information. J Comp Physiol A 194, 145–158 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-007-0282-2

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