POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access Modelling the mechanoreceptor’s dynamic behaviour

All sensory receptors adapt, i.e., they constantly adjust their sensitivity to external stimuli to match the current natural environment [1]. Electrophysiological responses of sensory receptors from widely different modalities seem to exhibit common features related to adaptation, and these features can be used to examine the underly-ing sensory transduction mechanisms [1,2]. Among the principal senses, mechanosensation remains the least understood at the cellular level [3]. To gain greater insights into mechanosensory signalling, we investigated if mechanosensation displayed adaptive dynamics that could be explained by similar biophysical mechanisms in other sensory modalities. To do this, we adapted a fly photoreceptor model [4] to describe the primary trans-duction process for a stretch-sensitive mechanoreceptor