Directional Characteristics of Primary Auditory Neurons from the Cod Ear

Abstract

It is now well established that at least some teleosts have a directional hearing sense (see Schuijf and Buwalda 1980). The cod, Gadus morhua, detects a change in the direction of propagation of sound and can discriminate between spatially separated sound sources, both in the horizontal and median vertical planes (Chapman and Johnstone 1974, Schuijf 1975, Hawkins and Sand 1977). Indeed, cod can discriminate between frontally incident and caudally incident sound waves (Schuijf and Buwalda 1975) and even distinguish between diametrically opposed sound sources in both the median vertical and transverse vertical planes (Buwalda, Schuijf, and Hawkins 1981). Thus, the cod discriminates direction in circumstances that are ambiguous or confusing for man, whose directional capabilities in the median vertical plane are poor (Butler 1974).KeywordsHair CellPolar DiagramStimulus LevelDirectional CharacteristicOtolith OrganThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.