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The Contribution Of The Lateral Line To 'Hearing' In Fish, Dennis M. Higgs, C. A. Radford

Biological Sciences Publications

In the underwater environment, sound propagates both as a pressure wave and as particle displacement, with particle displacement dominating close to the source (the nearfield). At the receptor level, both the fish ear and the neuromast hair cells act as displacement detectors and both are potentially stimulated by the particle motion component of sound sources, especially in the nearfield. A now common way to test ?hearing' in fish involves auditory evoked potentials (AEPs), with recordings made from electrodes implanted near the auditory brainstem. These AEP recordings are typically conducted in enclosed acoustic environments with the fish well within the nearfield, …