The outer hair cells in the mammalian cochlea are cellular actuators essential for sensitive
hearing. The geometry and stiffness of the structural scaffold surrounding the outer hair cells …

Ototoxicity, noise overstimulation, or aging, can all produce hearing loss with similar
properties, in which outer hair cells (OHCs), principally those at the high-frequency base of the …

Hair cells detect vibrations of their stereociliary bundle by activation of mechanically sensitive
transducer channels. Although evidence suggests the transducer channels are near the …

Auditory transduction occurs by opening of Ca 2+ -permeable mechanotransducer (MT)
channels in hair cell stereociliary bundles. Ca 2+ clearance from bundles was followed in rat …

Sound stimuli excite cochlear hair cells by vibration of each hair bundle, which opens
mechanotransducer (MT) channels. We have measured hair-bundle mechanics in isolated rat …

High sensitivity and selectivity of hearing require an active cochlea. The cochlear sensory
epithelium, the organ of Corti, vibrates because of external and internal excitations. The …

Auditory discrimination is limited by the performance of the cochlea whose acute sensitivity
and frequency tuning are underpinned by electromechanical feedback from the outer hair …

Although mechanoelectrical transducer (MET) channels have been extensively studied,
uncertainty persists about their molecular architecture and single-channel conductance. We …

Current-displacement (IX) and the force-displacement (FX) relationships characterize hair-cell
mechano-transduction in the inner ear. A common technique for measuring these …

The organ of Corti (OC) is the auditory epithelium of the mammalian cochlea comprising
sensory hair cells and supporting cells riding on the basilar membrane. The outer hair cells (…