Elsevier

Brain Research

Volume 250, Issue 1, 28 October 1982, Pages 168-172
Brain Research

Acute seismic sensitivity in the bullfrog ear

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(82)90964-7Get rights and content

Abstract

Single axons in the auditory/vestibular nerve of the American bullfrog exhibit by far the most exquisite sensitivity to substrate-borne vibration yet reported for a quadruped vertebrate. Earlier dye-injection studies revaled that these axons, which are relatively insensitive to airborne sound, originate at the saccular and lagenar maculae of the bullfrog inner ear. The more sensitive axons exhibited clear responses to vibratory sinusoids with peak accelerations as low as 0.005 cm/s2.

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Research sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Grant BNS-8005834.

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