Salt discriminating properties in single tarsal hairs of Phormia regina M
Pietra, P.; Tanzi, F.; Violante, A.; Crnjar, R.
Bollettino della Societa Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale 52(21): 1782-1788
1976
ISSN/ISBN: 0037-8771 PMID: 1026250 Document Number: 97634
It was concluded from work described in an earlier paper that a single tarsal hair of Phormia regina (Mg.) can provide the central nervous system with information useful in discriminating between galactose, which activates more than one sensory unit with the same degree of effectiveness, and sugars such as sucrose, fructose and glucose, which mainly activate one sensory unit only. An account is given of experiments on the effects on the hairs of sodium chloride, potassium chloride and potassium nitrate. A single tarsal hair seemed not to be able to distinguish between these salts. There was no detectable presence in the discharges evoked by the salts of any frequency codification related to the kind of stimulus.