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Abstract:
The outer hair cell (OHC) is one of two kinds of receptor cells in the inner ear, and plays a critical role in mammalian hearing. OHCs enhance basilar membrane motion through a local mechanical feedback process within the cochlea, termed the ‘cochlear amplifier’. It is generally believed that the basis of cochlear amplification is a voltage-dependent somatic length change of OHCs. In this scheme, receptor potentials produced by transducer current in response to acoustic stimulation provide the input to the cell’s motor activity. Consequently, the OHC is thought to perform two transducer functions, a conventional mechanoelectrical or forward transduction in the stereocilia, and a specialized electromechanical or reverse transduction in the basolateral membrane. My talk will focus on the mechanoelectrical and electromechanical transduction of cochlear hair cells, and the role of OHCs in cochlear amplification.
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