Squid can hear anything?

The sea is very loud. Although we don't hear much when we put our ears down on the water, with a dedicated device you can hear an audio choir. The noise is very diverse, from the low frequency bass of the fish that is mating to the roar of the motorboat. Research on how listening animals live in water is a prominent topic in marine science, especially those related to naval positioning systems or whales.

This summer at MBL, zoologist T. Aran Mooney will be the first scientist to study the hearing of mollusks, in which the Loligo pealeii squid is a model. To understand the sensitivity of this translucent colored animal to sound, he measured squid brain waves as they reacted to a variety of sounds, especially the clicking sounds of their predators like fish. crematorium, whale nose whales and dolphins. In addition to brainwave experiments, he also plans to train squid to avoid certain sounds.

The translucent colored ink inside the grid is surrounded by soundproofing boxes while Mooney measures its brain waves.(Photo: Joseph Caputo / MBL)

Mooney, an MBL researcher and postdoctoral researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic College this fall, said: 'Sound is one of the important signals for marine animals. Light moves hard in seawater, while sound performs this job much better . ' He predicted that ink could hear short-frequency sounds , meaning that they often hear the sound of fish and Learn about the sound of this animal hearing that can reveal the effects of man-made sounds on mollusks and how their auditory systems evolve separately with fish.

Working in Grass's lab with Mooney are two colleagues studying animal behavior. Keram Pleiffer of Marburd University, Germany is training bees to respond to polarized light, while Caltech's Gwyneth M. Card is documenting how flies can determine their first flight. They were among the 9 fellowship fellowships from the Grass Foundation to conduct summer research on neurobiology at MBL.