In this workpackage the neuronal representation of sensory stimuli perceived by the fish lateral line and the cricket cercal system is investigated.

The lateral line is a mechanosensory system used by fishes to detect and analyze water movements and pressure gradients generated by conspecifics, predators or prey. It consists of individual receptor organs, the neuromasts, that are distributed across the body of the fish. Each neuromast is comprised of a patch of hair cells underneath a gelatinous cupula (top). The hair cells are innervated by nerve fibers that convey sensory information to the brain.

The cricket cercus is comprised of a diversity of sensory hairs. Among them are filiform hairs that are used by the animal to detect air flow generated by approaching predators. Each hair gives rise to a nerve fibers that delivers the perceived information to the terminal ganglion in the animal's abdomen.

We investigate neuronal coding of presence, location and identity of sensory stimuli and the peripheral and central filter mechanisms for optimisation of signal-to-noise ratios in afferent nerve fibers of the fish lateral line and in cultured neurons from the cricket cercal system (bottom).

Our goal is to identify the abstract principles in neuronal representation of signal detection in these two groups of animals that are both equipped with arrays of mechanosensory hairs for signal detection, but live in extremely different environments, i.e., water and air, respectively.