Sensory modalities typically are important for both sexes, although sex-specific functional adaptations may occur frequently. This is true for hearing as well. Consequently, distinct behavioural functions were identified for the different insect hearing systems. Here we describe a first case, where a trait of an evolutionary novelty and a highly specialized hearing organ is adaptive in only one...

Granaries and food storage depots provide an essentially dark environment offering only occasional low-level illumination which is rarely intense enough to make spectral discrimination possible. Nevertheless insects adapted to such environments have been found to display phototactic responses (Balfour & Carmichael, 1928; Rahman & Sohi, 1939; Perttunen& Lahermaa, 1963; Yinon& Shulov, 1966; Sohi,...

The spider VS-3 slit-sense organ contains two types of primary mechanoreceptor neurons that are morphologically similar but have different electrical behavior. Type A neurons fire only one or two action potentials in response to a mechanical or electrical step of any amplitude above the threshold, whereas type B neurons fire prolonged bursts of action potentials in response to similar stimuli. ...

Saccadic eye movements can be elicited by more than one type of sensory stimulus. This implies substantial transformations of signals originating in different sense organs as they reach a common motor output pathway. In this study, we compared the prevalence and magnitude of auditory- and visually evoked activity in a structure implicated in oculomotor processing, the primate frontal eye fields...

Flies move their eyes by turning their heads either spontaneously or in response to unexpected disturbances of their preferred flight attitude. They use several visual and mechanosensory cues to keep flight balance and to stabilize their eyes relative to the surroundings by compensatory head/eye movements. The various sensory subsystems have different speed characteristics and cooperate autonom...

The sense organs of the vertebrate head comprise structures as varied as the eye, inner ear, and olfactory epithelium. In the early embryo, these assorted structures share a common developmental origin within the preplacodal region and acquire specific characteristics only later. Here we demonstrate a fundamental similarity in placodal precursors: in the chick all are specified as lens prior to...

This study describes the structure and function of pox neuro (poxn), a gene previously isolated by virtue of a conserved domain, the paired box, which it shares with the segmentation genes paired and gooseberry. Its expression pattern has been analyzed, particularly during development of the PNS. We propose that poxn is a "neuroblast identity" gene acting in both the PNS and the CNS on the basi...

Ključne riječi: osteoartritis, patofiziologija, sinovitis, hrskavica, starenje, mehanički stres Sažetak Osteoartritis je poremećaj na razini organa. Zahvaća sve strukture zgloba. Biomehanički i genetski čimbenici igraju važnu ulogu u nastanku i napredovanju osteoartritisa, dok je upala važna u progresiji bolesti i degradaciji hrskavice uzrokujući bol, oteklinu i zakočenost zgloba. Novije spozna...

We have shown that the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor Atonal is sufficient for specification of one of the three subsets of olfactory sense organs on the Drosophila antenna. Misexpression of Atonal in all sensory precursors in the antennal disc results in their conversion to coeloconic sensilla. The mechanism by which specific sense organ fate is triggered remains unclear. We have ...

The familiar Western taxonomy of the five senses, in which vision is accorded pride of place as "the noblest of the senses," has a venerable history going back to Plato and Aristotle. As several scholars have noted (e.g. Classen 1993, 1997, Herzfeld 2001, Howes 1991, Ingold 2000, Seremetakis 1994, Stoller 1989) vision is closely followed by hearing, both of which are deemed superior to the lowe...