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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 10, 2004, 24(45):10057-10063; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2711-04.2004

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Organ of Corti Potentials and the Motion of the Basilar Membrane

Anders Fridberger,¹ Jacques Boutet de Monvel,¹ Jiefu Zheng,² Ning Hu,² Yuan Zou,² Tianying Ren,² and Alfred Nuttall^2,3

¹Center for Hearing and Communication Research, Departments of Clinical Neuroscience and Otolaryngology, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden, ²Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Oregon Health and Science University, Oregon Hearing Research Center, Portland, Oregon 97201-3098, and ³Kresge Hearing Research Institute, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-0506

During sound stimulation, receptor potentials are generated within the sensory hair cells of the cochlea. Prevailing theory states that outer hair cells use the potential-sensitive motor protein prestin to convert receptor potentials into fast alterations of cellular length or stiffness that boost hearing sensitivity almost 1000-fold. However, receptor potentials are attenuated by the filter formed by the capacitance and resistance of the membrane of the cell. This attenuation would limit cellular motility at high stimulus frequencies, rendering the above scheme ineffective. Therefore, Dallos and Evans (1995a) proposed that extracellular potential changes within the organ of Corti could drive cellular motor proteins. These extracellular potentials are not filtered by the membrane. To test this theory, both electric potentials inside the organ of Corti and basilar membrane vibration were measured in response to acoustic stimulation. Vibrations were measured at sites very close to those interrogated by the recording electrode using laser interferometry. Close comparison of the measured electrical and mechanical tuning curves and time waveforms and their phase relationships revealed that those extracellular potentials indeed could drive outer hair cell motors. However, to achieve the sharp frequency tuning that characterizes the basilar membrane, additional mechanical processing must occur inside the organ of Corti.

Key words: cochlea; basilar membrane; laser interferometry; guinea pig; electromotility; outer hair cells

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Received July 7, 2004; revised September 27, 2004; accepted September 27, 2004.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Mistrik, C. Mullaley, F. Mammano, and J. Ashmore Three-dimensional current flow in a large-scale model of the cochlea and the mechanism of amplification of sound J R Soc Interface, March 6, 2009; 6(32): 279 - 291. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Ashmore Cochlear Outer Hair Cell Motility Physiol Rev, January 1, 2008; 88(1): 173 - 210. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Gao, X. Wang, X. Wu, S. Aguinaga, K. Huynh, S. Jia, K. Matsuda, M. Patel, J. Zheng, M. Cheatham, et al. Prestin-based outer hair cell electromotility in knockin mice does not appear to adjust the operating point of a cilia-based amplifier PNAS, July 24, 2007; 104(30): 12542 - 12547. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Jia, P. Dallos, and D. Z. Z. He Mechanoelectric Transduction of Adult Inner Hair Cells J. Neurosci., January 31, 2007; 27(5): 1006 - 1014. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. Dallos, J. Zheng, and M. A. Cheatham Prestin and the cochlear amplifier J. Physiol., October 1, 2006; 576(1): 37 - 42. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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