Schneier on Security

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November 26, 2010

Friday Squid Blogging: Studying Squid Hearing

At Woods Hole:

It is known now, through the work of Mooney and others, that the squid hearing system has some similarities and some differences compared to human hearing. Squid have a pair of organs called statocysts, balance mechanisms at the base of the brain that contain a tiny grain of calcium, which maintains its position as the animal maneuvers in the water. These serve a function similar to human ear canals.

Each statocyst is a hollow, fluid-filled sac lined with hair cells, like human cochlea. On the outside of the sac, the hair cells are connected to nerves, which lead to the brain. "It's kind of like an inside-out tennis ball," Mooney said, "hairy on the inside, smooth on the outside."

The calcium grain, called a statolith, enables the squid to sense its position in the water, based on which hair cells it's in contact with at a given moment. Normally it rests near the front of the sac, touching some of the hair cells.

Another article.

Tags: squid

Posted on November 26, 2010 at 4:58 PM • 2 Comments

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