Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
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Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. · Aug 1995
Proprioceptive hair cells on the neck of the squid Lolliguncula brevis: a sense organ in cephalopods for the control of head-to-body position.
Decapod cephalopods, such as cuttlefishes and squids, have a distinct neck region that allows movements (roll, pitch and yaw) of the head relative to the body. This paper describes the structure, innervation and central pathways of proprioceptive hair cells on the neck of the squid Lolliguncula brevis that sense such movements and control head-to-body position. These hair cells exist on the dorsal side of the neck underneath the nuchal cartilage, close to the animal's midline on either side of the nuchal crest. ⋯ Bilateral deafferentation of the cells elicited a downward head pitch offset. This offset was superimposed on the compensatory head pitch response during imposed body pitch. These morphological and behavioural findings show that the neck hair cells and the associated nuchal cartilage structures of Lolliguncula brevis form a neck receptor organ that, together with statocyst and visual inputs, controls the position of the animal's head and body.