Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In mammalian outer hair cells, the varying receptor potential is converted to active vibrations of the cell body. This mechanical response to electrical signals is termed somatic electromotility; [13] it drives variations in the cell's length, synchronized to the incoming sound signal, and provides mechanical amplification by feedback to the traveling wave.
The auditory hair cells in the cochlea are at the core of the auditory system's special functionality (similar hair cells are located in the semicircular canals). Their primary function is mechanotransduction , or conversion between mechanical and neural signals.
In the semicircular canals, the hair cells are found in the crista ampullaris, and the stereocilia protrude into the ampullary cupula. Here, the stereocilia are all oriented in the same direction. In the otoliths, the hair cells are topped by small, calcium carbonate crystals called otoconia. Unlike the semicircular ducts, the kinocilia of hair ...
Outer hair cells are a motor structure. Sound energy causes changes in the shape of these cells, which serves to amplify sound vibrations in a frequency specific manner. Lightly resting atop the longest cilia of the inner hair cells is the tectorial membrane, which moves back and forth with each cycle of sound, tilting the cilia, which is what ...
Tiny cells in the inner ear, called hair cells, are responsible for hearing and balance. States of neuropathic pain, such as hyperalgesia and allodynia, are also directly related to mechanosensation. A wide array of elements are involved in the process of mechanosensation, many of which are still not fully understood.
Hair follicle receptors called hair root plexuses sense when a hair changes position. Indeed, the most sensitive mechanoreceptors in humans are the hair cells in the cochlea of the inner ear (no relation to the follicular receptors – they are named for the hair-like mechanosensory stereocilia they possess); these receptors transduce sound for ...
The organ of Corti is located in the scala media of the cochlea of the inner ear between the vestibular duct and the tympanic duct and is composed of mechanosensory cells, known as hair cells. [2] Strategically positioned on the basilar membrane of the organ of Corti are three rows of outer hair cells (OHCs) and one row of inner hair cells ...
In the hair bundle, gating springs determine the open probability of mechanoelectrical ion transduction channels: at higher frequencies, these elastic springs are subject to higher stiffness and higher mechanical tension in tip-links of hair cells. [14] This is emphasized by the division of labor between outer and inner hair cells, in which ...