Hydrodynamic Coupling of Lobster Antennule Motion to Oscillatory Water Flow.

Abstract

removal of the entire lateral flagellum (2, 4). This could mean that the hydrodynamic receptors, still intact, provide partial, but substantial information for tracking. In the two papers that follow, we begin to focus on the lateral flagellum as a detector of hydrodynamic perturbations. Weaver and Atema analyze the hydrodynamic coupling of this organ to imposed water motion and conclude that both stretch and flow receptors could be detecting the observed frequency-dependent pivoting and whipping motions of the flagellum. Guenther and Atema describe the distribution of setae on the flagellum, including those with the potential for detecting relative water flow (Figure 1, right). Chemoreception is not infrequently coincident with mechanoreception. Taste in vertebrates-from fish to humans-is mediated by taste buds that are innervated by both chemoreceptor and mechanoreceptor cells. The two receptor systems obtain information from exactly the same locations-i.e., each single taste budthen carry their information separately to the brain; there the systems project again in close proximity, interact, and form a joint spatial map of the mouth and gut, leading to bimodal output (8). The functional aim is obvious: animals need to sort the tasty items from among the others in the mouth. The flavored eddies of interest to the lobster present similar bimodal signals to its olfactory system, and that coincidence detection then provides superior information for tracking odor plumes. -Jelle Atema August 1998