2000 Volume 40 Issue 3 Pages 156-161
The energy thresholds of the sensory cell of the cricket wind receptor were determined to be the thermal noise level kBT (4×10-21J at 300K). The determination was based on a laser-Doppler velocimetry of the receptor hair and the Stokes’ theory for viscous force. The mechanoreceptor exhibits fluctuations in spike timing to near-threshold stimuli. Simultaneous double recordings revealed independency of the fluctuations between cells. The cells employ the internal thermal noise as the seed of stochastic sampling. The thermal noise paradoxically enhances the detection of weak signal below the threshold.
