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The semicircular canals of the hagfish Myxine glutinosa
Author(s) -
McVean Alistair
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1991.tb04800.x
Subject(s) - biology , radius , hagfish , radius of curvature , rotation (mathematics) , anatomy , physics , curvature , semicircular canal , geometry , vertebrate , mathematics , biochemistry , mean curvature , computer security , mean curvature flow , computer science , gene , vestibular system , neuroscience
The internal radius (r) and radius of curvature (R) of the single semicircular canals of Myxine glutinosa have unusual dimensions. In mammals and fish the increase in dimension of r and R with respect to body weight is small; in fish r is larger than in mammals of equivalent weight in order to increase the sensitivity of the canals to angular rotation and R increases correspondingly (Jones & Spells, 1963). In Myxine r is larger than in fish or mammals yet R is smaller. It is argued that the large internal radius is the result of the need to increase the sensitivity of a single canal which has to signal rotation in three planes while the small radius of curvature follows from the absence of a cupula. In order to verify that the cristae of the canals do respond to rotational velocity, recordings were obtained from the nerves serving the canals during rotation in the horizontal plane. The frequency response of several afferents recorded simultaneously at sinusoidal rotations between 0.25 and 2.0 Hz was in the form of a sine wave 90d̀ in advance of head position, as would be expected of a velocity transducer. The gain of single afferents was an order of magnitude less than those reported for other vertebrates.