Electrical coupling between secondary hair cells in the statocyst of the squid Alloteuthis subulata

The cephalopod angular acceleration receptor system has sensory response characteristics similar to those of the vertebrate semicircular canal system and, unusual for an invertebrate, contains secondary receptor hair cells. The experiments reported use intracellular recordings from pairs of hair cells to show that at least one subset of the hair cells is electrically coupled along the entire length of the crista section. The coupling can be reduced by application of heptanol or octanol. Intracellular injection of H+ ions into a hair cell reduces the coupling of cells on the opposite site of the injected hair cell but does not abolish it completely. It is proposed that the coupling is likely to result in an improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio of the receptor system, a reduction in overall frequency response, but an increase in the low frequency sensitivity.