Study
Lateral line system of fish
Bleckmann, Horst; Zelick, Randy
Integrative Zoology, 2009
Reviews the structure of the lateral line — superficial neuromasts on the skin and canal neuromasts in fluid-filled channels — the different stimuli each responds to, and the behaviours that depend on them, including prey detection, predator avoidance, schooling and station-holding in currents.
- Studied in
- Actinopterygii, Amphibia
- Sample size
- synthesis of lateral line anatomy, physiology and behaviour
Superficial neuromasts respond to steady flow while canal neuromasts respond to accelerations, giving fish both a sense of the current they sit in and a sense of nearby movement. Blocking the system impairs prey capture, schooling and rheotaxis.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
The lateral line is a distinct mechanosensory modality providing near-field hydrodynamic information that vision and hearing cannot supply.
How NatureHQ reads it
The clearest example in the corpus of a sense that is not a version of one we have. It is not hearing — the relevant range is centimetres, and what is detected is water moving rather than pressure waves arriving. It is not touch, because nothing is in contact. A blind cave fish maps a room with it. Two receptor types doing different jobs is the detail worth carrying away: one reads the flow you are in, the other reads the flow something else just made.
- A review spanning a very large and unevenly studied group.
- Ablation studies use pharmacological blocking that may affect other systems.
- The boundary between lateral line and hearing is genuinely blurred in some fishes.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Animal senses
The five senses are a list from classical philosophy, not a finding. Electric fields, magnetic fields, water flow, polarised light and radiant heat all have receptors that fit none of them.
The lateral line
Fish carry a row of receptors along the body that detects water moving nearby. Nothing touches them and no sound arrives — it is a sense with no human equivalent.
Published by: Wiley journalsPublished in a Wiley journal.
doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-4877.2008.00131.x
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-02.