| Many sensory receptors have a specific structure where detector hair cells in a sensory epithelium excite primary afferent neurons. Examples of such hair cell - primary afferent receptors include auditory and vestibular sensory receptors of vertebrates, and also the electroreceptors of certain aquatic animals. Many of these systems exhibit active noisy oscillations, occurring without any external stimulation. Ampullary electroreceptors in paddlefish represent an example of such hair cell - afferent type sensory system. Interestingly, spontaneous oscillations occurs both in population of sensory hair cells and in primary afferents in this system. I will discuss how these stochastic self-sustained oscillations affect transmission of information about naturalistic sources of external electric fields to the brain. |
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