Experimental Measurement of Utricle System Dynamic Response to Inertial Stimulus

The membranous utricle sac of the red-eared turtle was mounted in a piezoelectric actuated platform mounted on the stage of a light microscope. The piezoelectric actuator oscillated the base of the neuroepithelium along a linear axis. Displacements were in the plane of the utricle and consisted of a linear sinusoidal-sweep signal starting at 0 and increasing to 500 Hz over 5 s. This inertial stimulus caused measurable shear displacement of the otoconial layer’s dorsal surface, resulting in shear deformation of the gelatinous and column filament layers. Displacements of the otoconial layer and a reference point on the neuroepithelium were filmed at 2,000 frames/s with a high-speed video camera during oscillations. Image registration was performed on the video to track displacements with a resolution better than 15 nm. The displacement waveforms were then matched to a linear second-order model of the dynamic system. The model match identified two system mechanical parameters—the natural circular frequency ω n and the damping ratio ζ—that characterized the utricle dynamic response. The median values found for the medial-lateral axis on 20 utricles with 95 % confidence intervals in parenthesis were as follows: ω n = 374 (353, 396) Hz and ζ = 0.50 (0.47, 0.53). The anterior-posterior axis values were not significantly different: ω n = 409 (390, 430) Hz and ζ = 0.53 (0.48, 0.57). The results have two relevant and significant dynamic system findings: (1) a higher than expected natural frequency and (2) significant under damping. Previous to this study, utricular systems were treated as overdamped and with natural frequencies much lower that measured here. Both of these system performance findings result in excellent utricle time response to acceleration stimuli and a broad frequency bandwidth up to 100 Hz. This study is the first to establish the upper end of this mechanical system frequency response of the utricle in any animal.