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Published in Philip Winn, Dictionary of Biological Psychology, 2003
A sensory system that detects the earth's magnetic field. Several species appear able to do this, including electrosensitive marine fish, birds and several others. Magnetoreception has been proposed as a mechanism involved in MIGRATION and NAVIGATION, but little is known of how magnetic fields are detected by neural tissue.
Exposure to Static and Extremely-Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields and Cellular Free Radicals
Published in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, 2019
Thus, the mechanisms described above, electro-receptors, magnetites, and radical-pair, enable living organisms to immediately detect the presence and changes in environmental electromagnetic fields of very low intensity. An effect that could have dire consequences on species survival is that man-made EMFs, with ubiquitous presence in the recent environment, could disrupt the natural responses to nature static- and ELF-EMF. Disruption of directional senses in insects has been reported (Shepherd et al. 2018). Polarity compass also can be disturbed by man-made EMF (Burda etal. 2009; Malkemper et al. 2015; Putman et al. 2014a). A study by Engels et al. (2014) showed that magnetic noise (at 2 KHz – 9 MHz, i. e., within the range of AM radio transmission) could disrupt magnetic compass orientation in migratory European robins. The disruption can occur at a very low noise level of 0.01 V/m (0.0000265 μW/cm2). Similar effects of RFR interference on magnetoreception have also been reported in a night migratory songbird (Aher et al. 2016) and European robin (Wiltschko et al. 2015).
Molecular mechanisms that change synapse number
Published in Journal of Neurogenetics, 2018
Alicia Mansilla, Sheila Jordán-Álvarez, Elena Santana, Patricia Jarabo, Sergio Casas-Tintó, Alberto Ferrús
In addition to its circadian activities, Drosophila CRY plays a role in magnetoreception, phototransduction and synapse activity. Based on a yeast-two hybrid assay, CRY physically interacts with the presynaptic protein Bruchpilot (BRP). The CRY-BRP complex is located in visual synapses mainly. Light activated CRY seems to decrease BRP levels in the terminals of the visual lamina neurons by targeting it to degradation (Damulewicz et al., 2017). In the same line, fly lamina neurons (L2 monopolar interneurons) exhibit structural and synapse number rhythmic changes that depend on the normal activity of the per gene, and involve the cyclic expression of the synaptogenic signalling by TOR, PI3K and AKT, as well as that of the autophagy genes Atg5 and Atg7 (Kijak & Pyza, 2017).
Scene through the eyes of an apex predator: a comparative analysis of the shark visual system
Published in Clinical and Experimental Optometry, 2018
A key factor in the success and longevity of sharks as apex predators is their sophisticated battery of sensory systems, which comprise at least seven sensory modalities – chemoreception (including both gustation and olfaction), passive electroreception, mechanoreception (including both lateral line and audition), magnetoreception and vision.2004 All of these senses play a significant role in the ongoing position of sharks as apex predators in the aquatic environment, but recent studies have revealed a profound difference in the relative importance of each of these senses, at least with respect to the relative proportion of sensory input to the central nervous system.2014