Lateral line
A sensory system detecting water movement, vibration, and pressure.
Last updated
The lateral line provides spatial awareness essential for orientation, predation, and schooling.[1] The system is usually visible as faint lines of pores along each side of a fish's body.[2] Water movement, vibration, and pressure gradients are all detected by the lateral line sensory system.[1]
Quick Facts
- Type
- Sensory system
- Functional units
- Neuromasts (canal and superficial)
- Sensory cells
- Hair cells (modified epithelial cells)
- Primary functions
- Detection of movement
- vibration
- and pressure gradients; orientation
- predation
- schooling
- Evolutionary age
- Over 400 million years
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Neuromasts serve as the operational components of the lateral line, being specialized mechanoreceptive organs that detect water motion.[2] Two primary types exist: superficial neuromasts and canal neuromasts.[3] Canal neuromasts are positioned within subdermal canals filled with fluid, whereas superficial neuromasts are located on the exterior of the body.[3] A flexible, jelly-like cupula covers the tips of hair cells found within each neuromast.[3]
Hair cells typically possess glutamatergic afferent connections and cholinergic efferent connections.[3] Lampreys, cartilaginous fishes, and bony fishes, which separated more than 400 million years ago, all possess the ancient lateral line system.[4] Mechanosensitive systems comparable to the lateral line are present in most amphibian larvae and in some adult amphibians that are fully aquatic.[4] Lateral line organs were subsequently lost in terrestrial tetrapods.[4]
The ampullae of Lorenzini, which are electroreceptive, originated from the lateral line organ.[5]
What the research sources say
In Mexican blind cave fish, neuromasts in and around the eye orbit are about twice as sensitive as those of surface-living fish.[6] Through passive sensing, the lateral line system should be able to tell apart submerged objects based on their shape.[1] When lateral line function is blocked by cobalt ions, blinded predatory fish cannot hunt, though they can when the lateral line is intact.[7] A lone prey fish generates a straightforward particle velocity pattern; in contrast, schooling prey produce a complex, overlapping pattern.[8]
In the midshipman fish, one type of superficial neuromast is tuned to acceleration between 30 and 200 Hz, while another type responds best to velocity below 30 Hz.[9]
References
- Wikipedia, "Lateral line" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bleckmann, "Lateral line system of fish", Integrative Zoology, 2009-03-01, p. 13–25; Bouffanais, "Hydrodynamic object recognition using pressure sensing", Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2 June 2010, p. 19–38; Lakkam, "Hydrodynamic object identification with artificial neural models", Scientific Reports, 2 August 2019, p. 11242; Coombs, "Sensory Processing in Aquatic Environments", Springer Science & Business Media, 2003, p. 122–138 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Lateral line" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bleckmann, "Lateral line system of fish", Integrative Zoology, 2009-03-01, p. 13–25 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Lateral line" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Russell, "The Pharmacology of Efferent Synapses in the Lateral-Line System of Xenopus Laevis", Journal of Experimental Biology, 1971, p. 643–659; Flock, "Lateral Line Detectors; proceedings of a conference held at Yeshiva University, New York, April 16-18, 1966", Indiana University Press, 1967, p. 163–197; Flock, "Lateral Line Detectors; proceedings of a conference held at Yeshiva University, New York, April 16-18, 1966", Indiana University Press, 1967, p. 163–197; Peach, "The Morphology of the Pit Organs and Lateral Line Canal Neuromasts en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Lateral line" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Webb, "Encyclopedia of Fish Physiology", Elsevier, 2011, p. 336–346; "The origin of tetrapods", University of California Museum of Paleontology Berkeley, 28 April 2021; Budelmann, "A lateral line analogue in cephalopods: Water waves generate microphonic potentials in the epidermal head lines of Sepia and Lolliguncula", Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 1988, p. 1–5; "The origin of tetrapods", University of California Museum of Paleontology Berkeley, 28 April 2021 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Lateral line" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: King, "Electroreception in early vertebrates: survey, evidence and new information", Palaeontology, 11 February 2018, p. 325–358; Bullock, "The phylogenetic distribution of electroreception: Evidence for convergent evolution of a primitive vertebrate sense modality", Brain Research Reviews, 1983, p. 25–46 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Lateral line" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Yoshizawa, "The sensitivity of lateral line receptors and their role in the behavior of Mexican blind cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus", The Journal of Experimental Biology, 2014, p. 886–895 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Lateral line" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Coombs, "The orienting response of Lake Michigan mottled sculpin is mediated by canal neuromasts", Journal of Experimental Biology, 2001, p. 337–348; Karlsen, "Selective and Reversible Blocking of the Lateral Line in Freshwater Fish", The Journal of Experimental Biology, 1987, p. 249–262 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Lateral line" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Larsson, "Possible functions of the octavolateralis system in fish schooling", Fish and Fisheries, 2009, p. 344–355 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Lateral line" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Weeg, "Frequency Response Properties of Lateral Line Superficial Neuromasts in a Vocal Fish, With Evidence for Acoustic Sensitivity", Journal of Neurophysiology, 2002, p. 1252–1262 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Lateral line (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Lateral line (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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