The use of evoked potentials to determine sensory sub-modality contributions to acoustic and hydrodynamic sensing
Both the lateral line and the inner ear contribute to near-field dipole source detection in fish. The precise roles these two sensory modalities provide in extracting information about the flow field remain of interest. In this study, evoked potentials (EP, 30–200 Hz) for blind Mexican cavefish were measured in response to a dipole source. Greatest sensitivity was observed at the lower and upper ends of the tested frequency range. To evaluate the relative contributions of the lateral line and inner ear, we measured the effects of neomycin on EP response characteristics at 40 Hz, and used the vital dye DASPEI to verify neuromast ablation. Neomycin increased the latency of the EP response up until 60 min post-treatment. DASPEI results confirmed that neuromast hair cell death was significant in treated fish over this timeframe. These results indicate that the inner ear, whether it is sound pressure or particle motion detection, makes a significant contribution to the dipole-induced EP in blind cavefish at near-field low frequencies where the lateral line contribution would be expected to be strongest. The results from this study imply that under some circumstances, lateral line function could be complemented by the inner ear.