Fishes and aquatic amphibians use the mechanosensory lateral line to detect weak water motions such as those generated by conspecifics, predators or prey. I investigated the response of lateral line nerve fibres of goldfish, Carassius auratus, to different water motions as: vortex ring structures, unidrectional water flow, Kárman vortex streets and to dipol stimuli under running water and still water conditions.

In these studies I often used a method called PIV (particle image velocimetry) to visualize the different stimuli while recording neural activity. A way to build an inexpensive PIV system was described by Dr. Wolf Hanke.

I mainly recorded from primary afferent fibers of the anterior and posterior lateral line nerve. Here one example:

Responses of a lateral line fiber under different conditions