Lobster Sniffing: Antennule Design and Hydrodynamic Filtering of Information in an Odor Plume

The first step in processing olfactory information, before neural filtering, is the physical capture of odor molecules from the surrounding fluid. Many animals capture odors from turbulent water currents or wind using antennae that bear chemosensory hairs. We used planar laser-induced fluorescence t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2001-11, Vol.294 (5548), p.1948-1951
Main Authors: Koehl, M. A. R., Koseff, Jeffrey R., Crimaldi, John P., McCay, Michael G., Cooper, Tim, Wiley, Megan B., Moore, Paul A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Antennas
Biochemistry. Physiology. Immunology
Biological and medical sciences
Chemoreceptor Cells - physiology
Crustacea
Crustaceans
Decapoda
Dyes
Flow velocity
Flumes
Fluorescence
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hair
Homarus americanus
Invertebrates
Kinetics
Lasers
Lobsters
Marine
Molecular diffusion
Motion
Nephropidae - physiology
Odorants
Odors
Olfactory nerve
Physiology. Development
Plumes
Receptors
Smell
Smell - physiology
Studies
Water
Water Movements
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Summary:The first step in processing olfactory information, before neural filtering, is the physical capture of odor molecules from the surrounding fluid. Many animals capture odors from turbulent water currents or wind using antennae that bear chemosensory hairs. We used planar laser-induced fluorescence to reveal how lobster olfactory antennules hydrodynamically alter the spatiotemporal patterns of concentration in turbulent odor plumes. As antennules flick, water penetrates their chemosensory hair array during the fast downstroke, carrying fine-scale patterns of concentration into the receptor area. This spatial pattern, blurred by flow along the antennule during the downstroke, is retained during the slower return stroke and is not shed until the next flick.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1063724