Symposium “Sensory Biomechanics”
Organized by: Matt McHenry and Sanjay Sane

The goal of this symposium is to present the work of a diverse assortment of investigators who use biomechanics to understand sensory function and its role in behavior. Investigators of sensory biomechanics integrate the principles of physics and neuroscience to examine how organisms acquire and process mechanical information at several levels of organization. This symposium is intended to introduce the organizing principles and state-of-art tools in this research area as well as showcase the up-and-coming work of young investigators from around the world. We hope through this symposium to encourage graduate students trained in biomechanics, physics, and neurosciences to explore exciting research questions at the interface of these disciplines.

List of Speakers

S1.1 Sunday, Jan. 4, 08:20 NARINS, P.M.:

Influence of environmental noise on the evolution of communication systems

S1.2 Sunday, Jan. 4, 09:00 GRIDI-PAPP, M.*; FENG, A.S.; SHEN, J.-X.; YU, Z.-L.; ROSOWSKI, J.J.; NARINS, P.M.:

High frequency hearing and behavioral tuning of the ear in frogs

S1.3 Sunday, Jan. 4, 09:20 WINDSOR, Shane:

Hydrodynamic imaging in blind Mexican cave fish

S1.4 Sunday, Jan. 4, 10:00 BARTH, F.G.:

Plenary Talk: Computational Biomechanics, Spiders, and the Sense of Senses

S1.5 Sunday, Jan. 4, 10:40 MACIVER, Malcolm A; SHIRGAONKAR, Anup A; PATANKAR, Neelesh A*:

Biomechanical constraints on sensory acquisition in weakly electric fish

S1.6 Sunday, Jan. 4, 11:00 SANE, Sanjay P.:

The tale of two mechanosensors: antennal role in insect flight

S1.7 Sunday, Jan. 4, 11:20 HARTMANN, Mitra JZ:

Mechanical and Behavioral Constraints on Neural Encoding in the Rat Vibrissal/Trigeminal Pathway

S1.8 Sunday, Jan. 4, 11:40 MCHENRY, MJ*; STROTHER, JA; VAN TRUMP, WJ:

Fluid-structure interaction in lateral line receptors

S1.9 Sunday, Jan. 4, 13:40 COREY, David P*; KARAVITAKI, Domenica; SOTOMAYOR, Marcos:

Macro- and micro-mechanics of hair-cell transduction

S1.10 Sunday, Jan. 4, 14:20 GOODMAN, M. B.:

Mechano-electrical Transduction Channels in Two Classes of C. elegans Mechanoreceptor Neurons

S1.11 Sunday, Jan. 4, 14:40 GOPFERT, M. C.:

Auditory transduction in Drosophila

 

Pictures

Courtesy of David Corey

Courtesy of David Corey

3-D reconstruction of a C. elegans touch receptor neuron showing the location of microtubules (purple rods) and transduction channels (gold spheres) overlaid on a montage of some of the images used to make the digital reconstruction. Courtesy of Miriam Goodman

Courtesy of Matthew McHenry

Sponsors