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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

A Behavioral Assay for Mechanosensation of MARCM-based Clones in Drosophila melanogaster
Published on: December 30, 2015
Rapid firing rates from mechanosensory neurons in copepod antennules
David M Fields1, Marc J Weissburg
1School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 310 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. david.fields@biology.gatech.edu
Abstract:
Small detection distances coupled with rapid movements require copepods to respond to stimuli with behavioral latencies on the order of milliseconds. Receiving adequate sensory information in such a short time necessitates extremely rapid firing rates of the efferent receptors. Here we show that copepod mechanoreceptors can fire at frequencies up to 5 kHz in response to fluid mechanical stimuli. Neural activity at these frequencies enables these animals to code for a range of fluid velocities thus providing important information regarding the nature of different fluid disturbances.
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