Psy 405

The Vestibular System

Vestibular system:
1. Perception of balance, orientation
and motion
2. very primitive sensory system
3. Differs from other senses because
sensations not consciously perceived

For all animals

Stimulus for orientation: gravity
sensory mechanism for detecting gravity:
Statocyst:
Fluid filled sack lined with hairs
Statolith:
Particles heavier than the fluid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUIokQ36rbA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9XtK6R1QAk&feature=related

statocyst

Mammalian vestibular system:

Part of inner ear

3 main organs:
Saccule
Utricle
Semicircular Canals

Utricle and Saccule: linear acceleration

Utricle: horizontal motion
Saccule: vertical motion

Semicircular Canals: circular movements

3 canals oriented along

3 dimensions of space

Vestibular system responds

only to acceleration

vision and vestibular interactions

Effects of vestibular signals on vision:
Eye reflexes to compensate for head motion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_R0LcPnZ_w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3KHgkZHuzc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiASZpZzT88

Patient JCs perception after complete loss of

his vestibular system
By bracing my head between the bars of the bed I could minimize
the pulse beat that made the letters of the page jump and blur
When walking in a corridor I had the peculiar sensation that I was inside
a flexible tube, fixed at the end nearest me but swaying free at the far end

Effects of vestibular signals on vision:

Vestibular adaptation induces visual
Motion aftereffects

Effects of vision on vestibular signals:

self vection:
If visual field moves you feel like you
are moving

Effects of vision on vestibular signals:

self vection:
If visual field moves you feel like you
are moving
e.g. IMAX theater

visual frames of reference

Effects of vision on vestibular signals:

Sense of balance

e.g. try balancing on one foot

Usually visual and vestibular signals agree

Disagreements can lead to motion sickness

Motion sickness most common for

Passive movement involving acceleration
Static visual fields
(e.g. reading in car or sitting in ship cabin)

Theory:

Mismatched signals typical of poisoning

Vomiting is therefore an adaptive response

Psy 405
Still More Exotic Sensory Systems

What flowers might look like to bees?

Visible
UV

Mantis Shrimp: The King of Color!

8 pigments for color + 2 for polarization!

The 5 senses in plants

Vision: plants orient to the direction of the sun
Can detect different wavelengths to respond to shade
Can set their circadian rhythms by light
Hearing: some roots may emit sound pulses

Touch: insect eating plants respond to very specific patterns

of movement
Smell: fruits and leaves emit odors that are detected to
synchronize ripening
Taste: roots may communicate with each other to signal
drought or disease

Bat echolocation
2 types of bats:
Megachiroptera:
Fruit eating, no echolocation
Microchiroptera:
Insect eating , echolocating

What is it like to be a bat?

Thomas Nagel
Bat sonar, though clearly a form of perception,
is not similar in its operation to any sense that
we possess, and there is no reason to suppose that it is
subjectively like anything we can experience or imagine

Echolocation not confirmed until 1940s!

prior theory:
felt the air with their wings
(Maxim, Scientific Am 1912)

Solved only after invention of

high-freq sound recorders

Bat calls
1.High frequency
(20-40k fundamental)
2.Extremely loud
(dB level of rock band or jet landing!)
3.Both constant and varying frequency
components
4.Changes at different phases of hunting

human range:
20-20,000 Hz

Changes in call features from search, approach, to final attack

Dolphin and whale calls

http://killerwhale.org/fieldnotes/pics/sounds/N4.wav

Why such high frequencies?

Small objects (Bugs!) reflect high
frequencies better than low

Why change the call?

As prey is approached
need to sample more rapidly and
over wider frequency range
(feeding buzz)

Cues in the echo:

1.distance:
time delay between call and returning echo

2. direction:
which ear echo is louder in
3. identity:
Frequency spectrum of the echo
4. Relative motion:
Doppler shift

Are these cues good?

Yes!
Bats can catch ~5-10 insects / minute!

Bugs battle back!!!

Defenses:
1. Avoidance
Random flight with moderate sound
Drop to ground with intense sound

2. Advertising
Some moths emit high frequencies
3. Stealth?

Why arent bats confused by other bats?

Middle ear reflex blocks sound

transmission except at critical time
Bats can recognize their own voices

Sonar
Common to most marine mammals

Sonar characteristics
Very high frequency (peak ~100 kHz)
Very intense depending on
background noise
(e.g. snapping shrimp)

Very accurate
Dolphins can detect 3 in ball 120 m away!
(equal to visual stimulus falling on 4 cones)
Whale sounds

http://whalesounds.com/home/index.html

Sonar problem: impedance matching

How transfer sound from air to water?
Solution: resonator (the melon)

Other systems for detecting

self-generated stimuli:
electroreception

Among mammals only monotremes

are known to have electroreception

Bird Navigation

Visual cues:
Solar
Requires circadian clock to interpret
Can bias direction by shifting clock

Bird Navigation
Visual cues:
Celestial
Stars rotate around fixed point (north star)

Pigeons and ducks can use pattern of

rotation as a cue

Non-visual cues:
Magnetic field:
Birds in cage without visual cues will
tend to hop toward south in fall
and north in spring
If block field hop in random directions

Magnetic field

2 cues direction and inclination

Birds may use inclination

Why?
The direction keeps changing!

The magnetic field has reversed 24 times

in last 5 million years!

Many other species are sensitive

to magnetic fields