Abstract
The investigation of small physiological mechanosensory systems, such as hair cells or their accessory structures in the inner ear or lateral line organ, requires mechanical stimulus equipment that allows spatial manipulation with micrometer precision and stimulation with amplitudes down to the nanometer scale. Here, we describe the calibration of a microfluid jet produced by a device that was designed to excite individual cochlear hair cell bundles or cupulae of the fish superficial lateral line system. The calibration involves a precise definition of the linearity and time-and frequency-dependent characteristics of the fluid jet as produced by a pressurized fluid-filled container combined with a glass pipette having a microscopically sized tip acting as an orifice. A procedure is described that can be applied during experiments to obtain a fluid jet's frequency response, which may vary with each individual glass pipette. At small orifice diameters (
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 167-182 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun-2007 |
Keywords
- micro fluid jet
- hair cell
- lateral line
- micromechanics
- hydrodynamic excitation
- calibrated fluid sensing
- MECHANOELECTRICAL TRANSDUCTION
- LATERAL-LINE
- ADAPTATION
- CHANNEL
- FORCES
- FROG
- AMPLIFICATION
- STIFFNESS
- SACCULUS