Sensory processing of water currents by fishes

Water currents are extremely important in the aquatic environment and play a very significant role in the lives of fishes. Sensory processing of water currents involves a number of sensory modalities including the inner ear, vision, tactile sense and the mechanosensory lateral line. The inner ear wi ll detect whole-body accelerations generated by changes in flow, or by turb ulence, whereas visual and tactile inputs will signal translational movemen t with respect to an external visual or tactile reference frame. The superf icial neuromasts of the mechanosensory lateral line detect flow over the su rface of the body and have the appropriate anatomical distribution and phys iological properties to signal the strength and the direction of flow and, hence, contribute to the detection of regional differences in flow over dif ferent parts of the body.