Medullary lateral line units of rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalmus, are sensitive to Kármán vortex streets.

Abstract

We investigated the responses of medullary lateral line units of the rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalmus, to bulk water flow (7cms(-1)) and to water flow that contained vortices shed by an upstream half cylinder (diameter 1, 2, and 3cm). Thirty-five percent of the medullary units either increased or decreased their discharge rate with the increasing cylinder diameter. In some units, the spike patterns revealed the vortex shedding frequency, i.e., in these units the amplitude of spike train frequency spectra was similar or identical to the vortex shedding frequency.