Control of a hair bundle's mechanosensory function by its mechanical load
Abstract
Hair cells, the sensory receptors of the internal ear, subserve different functions in various receptor organs: they detect oscillatory stimuli in the auditory system, but transduce constant and step stimuli in the vestibular and lateral-line systems. We show that a hair cell's function can be controlled experimentally by adjusting its mechanical load. By making bundles from a single organ operate as any of four distinct types of signal detector, we demonstrate that altering only a few key parameters can fundamentally change a sensory cell's role. The motions of a single hair bundle can resemble those of a bundle from the amphibian vestibular system, the reptilian auditory system, or the mammalian auditory system, demonstrating an essential similarity of bundles across species and receptor organs.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1703.09637,
title = {Control of a hair bundle's mechanosensory function by its mechanical load},
author = {Joshua D. Salvi and Daibhid O Maoileidigh and Brian A. Fabella and Melanie Tobin and A. J. Hudspeth},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.09637},
year = {2017}
}