Please select the desired project time frame:
- July 2026
- January 2026
- July 2025
- January 2025
- July 2024
- January 2024
- July 2023
- January 2023
- July 2022
- January 2022
- July 2021
- January 2021
- July 2020
- January 2020
- July 2019
- January 2019
- July 2018
- January 2018
- July 2017
- January 2017
- July 2016
- January 2016
- July 2015
- January 2015
- July 2014
- January 2014
- July 2013
- January 2013
- July 2012
- January 2012
- July 2011
- January 2011
- July 2010
- January 2010
- July 2009
- January 2009
- July 2008
- January 2008
- July 2007
- January 2007
- July 2006
- January 2006
- July 2005
- January 2005
- July 2004
- January 2004
- July 2003
- January 2003
- July 2002
- January 2002
- July 2001
- January 2001
Start of funding 01.07.2017
Moving earstones: Advanced modeling of complex otolith motion in the fish ear
Dr. Tanja Schulz-Mirbach
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Department of Biology II - Zoology
Prof. Petr Krysl
University of California, San Diego
Department of Structural Engeneering
Modern bony fishes (teleosts) like zebrafish are important model organisms to study deafness and balance disorders in human medicine. Yet, the actual motion of the otolith (“ear stone”) relative to the underlying sensory epithelium in the fish ear remains widely elusive and modeling of otolith motion and the rare experimental studies have yielded conflicting results. Based on a recent study that indicates a shape-dependent pattern of otolith motion, we will elucidate what parameters in the previous modeling of otolith motion have to be adjusted in order to closely fit the experimental data obtained during a recent project at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, Grenoble). We will then extend the advanced modelling to include the gas-filled swim bladder which can act as an accessory hearing structure (pressure-to-particle motion transducer) and the relative motion between otolith and the underlying sensory epithelium. We expect that our extended modeling will provide a fundamental basis for a better understanding of otolith motion in fish ears and will help to shed light on the role of species-specific otolith shapes in fish hearing. Thus, it could also serve as a starting point for more precise predictions of the effects of increasing ocean acidification due to global climate change which has been shown to affect otolith mineralization and which is hypothesized to affect fish hearing and behavior.