Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 15 November 1985:
Vol. 230. no. 4727, pp. 745 - 752
DOI: 10.1126/science.2414845
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Science, Vol 230, Issue 4727, 745-752
Copyright © 1985 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

The cellular basis of hearing: the biophysics of hair cells

AJ Hudspeth

A crucial event in the hearing process is the transduction of mechanical stimuli into electrical signals by hair cells, the sensory receptors of the internal ear. Stimulation results in the rapid opening of ionic channels in the mechanically sensitive organelles of these cells, their hair bundles. These transduction channels, which are nonselectively permeable, are directly excited by hair-bundle displacement. Hair cells are selectively responsive to particular frequencies of stimulation, both due to the mechanical properties of their hair bundles and because of an ensemble of ionic channels that constitute an electrical resonator.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Mathematical modelling of the active hearing process in mosquitoes.
D. Avitabile, M. Homer, A. R. Champneys, J. C. Jackson, and D. Robert (2010)
J R Soc Interface 7, 105-122
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mosaic Complementation Demonstrates a Regulatory Role for Myosin VIIa in Actin Dynamics of Stereocilia.
H. M. Prosser, A. K. Rzadzinska, K. P. Steel, and A. Bradley (2008)
Mol. Cell. Biol. 28, 1702-1712
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Longitudinally propagating traveling waves of the mammalian tectorial membrane.
R. Ghaffari, A. J. Aranyosi, and D. M. Freeman (2007)
PNAS 104, 16510-16515
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mechanical signal transduction in skeletal muscle growth and adaptation.
J. G. Tidball (2005)
J Appl Physiol 98, 1900-1908
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Energy Integration Describes Sound-Intensity Coding in an Insect Auditory System.
T. Gollisch, H. Schutze, J. Benda, and A. V. M. Herz (2002)
J. Neurosci. 22, 10434-10448
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mechanics of the Mammalian Cochlea.
L. Robles and M. A. Ruggero (2001)
Physiol Rev 81, 1305-1352
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Location and function of the epithelial Na channel in the cochlea.
V. Couloigner, M. Fay, S. Djelidi, N. Farman, B. Escoubet, I. Runembert, O. Sterkers, G. Friedlander, and E. Ferrary (2001)
Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 280, F214-F222
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Immunohistochemical Localization of Ca2+/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinase IV in Outer Hair Cells.
M. Koyama, S. S. Spicer, and B. A. Schulte (1999)
J. Histochem. Cytochem. 47, 7-12
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Actin filaments, stereocilia and hair cells of the bird cochlea. VI. How the number and arrangement of stereocilia are determined.
L. Tilney, D. Cotanche, and M. Tilney (1992)
Development 116, 213-226
   Abstract »    PDF »
Ultrastructural Correlates of Mechanoelectrical Transduction in Hair Cells of the Bullfrog's Internal Ear.
R.A. Jacobs and A.J. Hudspeth (1990)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 55, 547-561
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)