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Medullary lateral line units of rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalmus, are sensitive to Kármán vortex streets

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Abstract

We investigated the responses of medullary lateral line units of the rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalmus, to bulk water flow (7 cm s−1) and to water flow that contained vortices shed by an upstream half cylinder (diameter 1, 2, and 3 cm). Thirty-five percent of the medullary units either increased or decreased their discharge rate with the increasing cylinder diameter. In some units, the spike patterns revealed the vortex shedding frequency, i.e., in these units the amplitude of spike train frequency spectra was similar or identical to the vortex shedding frequency.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

CN:

Canal neuromast

FFT:

Fast Fourier transformation

MON:

Medial octavolateralis nucleus

PIV:

Particle image velocimetry

Q:

Quartile

SN:

Superficial neuromast

VSF:

Vortex shedding frequency

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ruth Kretschmer, Joachim Mogdans, Vera Schluessel, and two anonymous reviewers for carefully reading and commenting on the manuscript. The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the DFG (GRK 1572) and the BMBF. The research reported herein was performed under the guidelines established by the current German animal protection law (Landesamt für Natur, Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz NRW, 87-51.04.2010.A013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Zoology, Poppelsdorfer Schloss, University of Bonn, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Adrian Klein, Jan Winkelnkemper, Evelyn Dylda & Horst Bleckmann

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  1. Adrian Klein
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  2. Jan Winkelnkemper
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  3. Evelyn Dylda
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  4. Horst Bleckmann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adrian Klein.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

359_2015_1016_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 1 Online Resource 1 a-c. Responses of the medullary lateral line unit number 3 to bulk water flow and to vortex streets. Original recordings (a), FFT of spike patterns (b) and evoked spike rates (c) are plotted. Data are shown for pre cylinder, cylinder and post cylinder condition. a and b depict data from one experimental repetition. b In this unit (unit number 3) the peak spike frequency increased with increasing cylinder diameter but did not coincide with the calculated vortex shedding frequency (horizontal black bars). c Evoked spike rates as function of cylinder diameter. Spike rates significantly increased with increasing cylinder diameter only if the fish was exposed to the vortex street (cylinder condition). Note that cylinder size during pre and post cylinder condition refers to the diameter of the cylinder presented during cylinder condition. n = 5 repetitions. (PDF 108 kb)

359_2015_1016_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 2 Online Resource 2 a-c. Responses of medullary lateral line unit number 15 to bulk water flow and to vortex streets. Original recordings (a), FFT of spike patterns (b) and evoked spike rates (c) are plotted. Data are shown for pre cylinder, cylinder and post cylinder condition. a and b depict data from one experimental repetition. b In this unit (unit number 15) the peak spike frequency decreased with increasing cylinder diameter and the peak frequency coincided with the calculated vortex shedding frequency (horizontal black bars). c Evoked spike rates as function of cylinder diameter. Spike rates significantly increased with increasing cylinder diameter if the fish was exposed to a vortex street (cylinder condition). During the post cylinder condition, spike rates significantly decreased with increasing cylinder diameter. No significant de- or increase in spike rate was found before the cylinder has been presented (pre cylinder condition). Note that cylinder size during pre and post cylinder condition refers to the diameter of the cylinder presented during cylinder condition. n = 5. (PDF 133 kb)

359_2015_1016_MOESM3_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 3 Online Resource 3 a-c. Responses of medullary lateral line unit number 17 to bulk water flow and to vortex streets. Original recordings (a), FFT of spike patterns (b) and evoked spike rates (c) are plotted. Data are shown for pre cylinder, cylinder and post cylinder condition. a and b depict data from one experimental repetition. b In this unit (unit number 17) the peak spike frequency decreased with increasing cylinder diameter and the peak spike frequency coincided with the calculated vortex shedding frequency (horizontal black bars). c Evoked spike rates as function of cylinder diameter. Spike rates significantly increased with increasing cylinder diameter if the fish was exposed to a vortex street (cylinder condition) and after the cylinder has been presented (post cylinder condition). No significant de- or increase in spike rate was found before (pre cylinder condition) the cylinder has been presented. Note that cylinder size during pre and post cylinder condition refers to the diameter of the cylinder presented during cylinder condition. n = 5 repetitions. (PDF 144 kb)

359_2015_1016_MOESM4_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 4 Online Resource 4 a-c. Responses of medullary lateral line unit number 21 to bulk water flow and to vortex streets. Original recordings (a), FFT of spike patterns (b) and evoked spike rates (c) are plotted. Data are shown for pre cylinder, cylinder and post cylinder condition. a and b depict data from one experimental repetition. b In this unit (unit number 21) the peak spike frequency decreased with increasing cylinder diameter and spike frequency coincided with the calculated vortex shedding frequency (horizontal black bars). c Evoked spike rates as function of cylinder diameter. No significant de- or increase in spike rate was found before (pre cylinder condition), during (cylinder condition) and after (post cylinder condition) the cylinder has been presented. Note that cylinder size during pre and post cylinder condition refers to the diameter of the cylinder presented during cylinder condition. n = 5 repetitions. (PDF 232 kb)

359_2015_1016_MOESM5_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 5 Online Resource 5 Spike interval plot of unit number 20 as function of cylinder size (a: no cylinder, b: 1 cm, c: 2 cm and d: 3 cm, v = 9 cm/s). A peak is visible in each plot at a delay of 100 ms (arrowheads). In the presence of a cylinder, a second peak (black bars) occurred at a spike interval that coincided with the vortex shedding delay. In addition the number of spikes and therefore the number of spike intervals increased (compare also with Fig. 7). Error bars: ± s.e.ig. (PDF 103 kb)

359_2015_1016_MOESM6_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 6 Online Resource 6 a-f PIV and spike patterns. a Mean flow vectors demonstrating that flow was almost parallel to the fish and decreased with decreasing distance to the fish according to the boundary layer. b-d Spatial correlation strength maps (isolines) between time series of flow vectors (b: streamwise vector component u, c: cross-stream vector component v and d: flow magnitude |u,v|) and time series of the neuronal activity of unit number 32 caused by the 3 cm cylinder. The color bar for the isolines indicates the normalized correlation value. Asterisks show the location of minimal and maximal correlation values. Note that images show the region between the pectoral (bottom left) and anal fin (bottom right). e, f Time series of the neuronal activity (each vertical red marker represents one action potential) and the u vector (e) and v vector (f) flow component (black lines) of a distinct position (red star in b). (PDF 229 kb)

359_2015_1016_MOESM7_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 7 Online Resource 7 Spike interval plots of a unit for various positions of a 3 cm diameter cylinder. 0 mm is the position directly ahead of the rudd. Positive values represent cylinder positions ipsilateral, negative values cylinder positions contralateral to the recording side. Note that a peak occurs at 100 ms interspike interval at positions -15 mm to 35 mm. A second peak occurs at positions 25 mm and 35 mm (arrows). This peak coincided with the vortex shedding delay. In addition the number of spikes was higher if the cylinder was positioned ipsilateral, compared to the contralateral cylinder position or the case when no cylinder was present. (PDF 29 kb)

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Klein, A., Winkelnkemper, J., Dylda, E. et al. Medullary lateral line units of rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalmus, are sensitive to Kármán vortex streets. J Comp Physiol A 201, 691–703 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-015-1016-5

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