Bi-modal Chemical and Mechanical Signal Detection: Filter Properties of Chemo- and Mechanoreceptor Cells

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Selection of food often involves mechanosensory information about texture along with chemosensory information about flavor. Aquatic crustaceans such as crayfish and lobster have antennae, antennules and mouthparts with many sensory hairlike structures called sensilla, which often are receptors for chemosensory as well as mechanical stimuli. These animals provide an excellent model system for study because the few nerve cells in each sensilla are very easily accessible for recording nerve activity, to determine how they respond to different stimuli. This project uses anatomical and electrophysiological techniques to explore how these sensory structures are innervated and to help understand how responses to mechanical hydrodynamic flow around the receptors interact with responses to chemosensory stimuli. Results will clarify how multi-modal signals about the environment are normally integrated by the nervous system to produce appropriate behavior. This work will have an impact not only on chemosensory and mechanosensory science, but on understanding information coding in general in the nervous system with potential relevance to robotic sensors, on understanding sensory evolution and how organisms adapt to their environment, and may lead to applied advances in animal stock management in the fisheries industry.