Planar relations of semicircular canals in awake, resting turtles, Pseudemys scripta

Abstract

As part of a project aimed at elucidating mechanisms of vestibulocollic control in the red-eared turtle Pseudemys scripta, we have calculated the planar relations of its semicircular canals using principal-components analysis. This information is prerequisite to understanding the pattern of canal activation that is set up by head movement of any spatial form. In addition, we have developed a method for monitoring canal orientation in an awake, behaving animal, and we have used this technique to assess canal position in resting turtles. Our results indicate that ipsilateral canals in Pseudemys are not mutually orthogonal, nor are complementary canals precisely coplanar, although they approach this idealized condition more closely than do the canals of several other vertebrates for which quantitative data exist. One significant departure from the perfectly orthogonal configuration is that both verical canals are rotated slightly toward the frontal plane; thus, Pseudemys should be somewhat more sensitive to head roll than to head rotation in other planes. Radiographic analyses of awake, resting turtles indicate that the anterior interparietal suture is held aligned with the earth horizontal and midsagittal plane. The horizontal canal is pitched up (open anterior) 3-4 degrees relative to the earth horizontal.