Sensory organ of fish could help development of pressure sensor for underwater robots

This is the claim of scientists at Bristol University who have studied the sensory organ to understand cues for collective behaviour. Their findings have been published in Open Science.

The lateral line sensing organ enables fish to sense and interpret water pressures around them with enough acuity to detect external influences such as neighbouring fish, changes in water flow, predators and obstacles.

The lateral line system is distributed over the head, trunk and tail of the fish and is comprised of mechanoreceptors (neuromasts) found within subdermal channels or on the surface of the skin.

In a statement, lead author Elliott Scott of Bristol University’s Department of Engineering Mathematics, said: “We were attempting to find out if the different areas of the lateral line - the lateral line on the head versus the lateral line on the body, or the different types of lateral line sensory units such as those on the skin, versus those under it - play different roles in how the fish is able to sense its environment through environmental pressure readings.