Systematic assignment of fossil otoliths is virtually always based on studies of otolith morphology and subsequent comparisons with otoliths from collections and/or literature. Although this usually represents a practical method, comparisons and subsequent evaluation may be biased by subjective criteria used in the individual descriptions. Quantitative morphometric studies focusing on variation...

Oxygen isotope ratios from fish otoliths are used to discriminate marine stocks and reconstruct past climate, assuming that variations in otolith δ18O values closely reflect differences in temperature history of fish when accounting for salinity induced variability in water δ18O. To investigate this, we exploited the environmental and migratory data gathered from a decade using archival tags to...

Fish otoliths are highly calcified concretions deposited in the inner ear and serve as a part of the hearing and balance systems. They consist mainly of calcium carbonate and a small amount of organic matrix. The latter component is considered to play important roles in otolith formation. Previously, we identified two major otolith matrix proteins, OMP-1 (otolith matrix protein-1) and Otolin-1,...

The ef®ciency with which estuarine habitats produce ®sh is poorly understood due to the complexity of life cycles. Spatial dynamics of estuarine ®shes comprise retentive and dispersive behaviors which occur on seasonal and ontogenetic scales. Salinity is an important scalar in the spatial dynamics of estuarine ®shes, that may affect production and dispersal. In this paper, we review investigati...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In previous imaging studies, the posterior insular cortex (IC) was identified as an essential part for vestibular otolith perception and considered as a core region of a human vestibular cortical network. However, it is still unknown whether lesions exclusively restricted to the posterior IC suffice to provoke signs of vestibular otolith dysfunction. Thus, present data ai...

The ability to simultaneously move in the world and maintain stable visual perception depends critically on the contribution of vestibulo-ocular reflexes (VORs) to gaze stabilization. It is traditionally believed that semicircular canal signals drive compensatory responses to rotational head disturbances (rotational VOR), whereas otolith signals compensate for translational movements [translati...

Behavioral experiments indicate that central pathways that process otolith-ocular and perceptual information have adaptive capabilities. Because polarization vectors of otolith afferents are directly related to the electro-mechanical properties of the hair cell bundle, it is unlikely that they change their direction of excitation. This indicates that the adaptation must take place in central pa...