Animals sense mechanical signals in their environment for a wide variety of behaviors. This ability is facilitated by sensory organs that transform a stimulus into a nervous signal. Understanding how this is achieved requires a consideration of both the physics of the signals and the neurobiology of the sensory organs. This proposal will support a symposium that presents research on the physics and biology of how animals sense mechanical information. Invited speakers will discuss the mechanical signals in the environments of animals, the behavioral responses of animals to these signals, and how signals are detected by sensory organs. In addition, contributed presentations will showcase a breadth of research that integrates biomechanics and sensory biology. All presentations will be made during two days of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology in Boston, MA. This symposium will provide a forum for both the synthesis of governing principles of sensory biomechanics, as well as the approaches and findings at the cutting-edge of this field. The presenters include men and women from a diversity of disciplines at all career levels between graduate students to distinguished professors. In addition to providing a scientific forum, this symposium aims to promote the careers of young investigators.
