Related papers: Two adaptation processes in auditory hair cells to…
We propose amplitude death phenomenon as an underlying mechanism of auditory transduction. When non-identical auditory hair bundles are elastically coupled, their spontaneous oscillations can be quenched to form an amplitude death state. We…
Outer hair cells in the inner ear is important for the sensitivity, frequency selectivity, and dynamic range of the mammalian ear. Such a physiological role of outer hair cells is thought to be based an amplifying effect of those cells,…
The inner ear achieves a wide dynamic range of responsiveness by mechanically amplifying weak sounds. The enormous mechanical gain reported for the mammalian cochlea, which exceeds a factor of 4,000, poses a challenge for theory. Here we…
The ability of the mammalian ear in processing high frequency sounds, up to $\sim$100 kHz, is based on the capability of outer hair cells (OHCs) responding to stimulation at high frequencies. These cells show a unique motility in their cell…
Collective oscillation of cells in a population has been reported under diverse biological contexts and with vastly different molecular constructs. Could there be common principles similar to those that govern spontaneous oscillation in…
The viscous liquid surrounding a hair bundle dissipates energy and dampens oscillations, which poses a fundamental physical challenge to the high sensitivity and sharp frequency selectivity of hearing. To identify the mechanical forces at…
The precise timing of synaptic transmission in auditory hair cells is important to hearing and speech recognition. Neurotransmitter release is an underlying step in translating sound. Thus, understanding nature of the synaptic fusion is key…
Avian hair cells depend on electrical resonance for frequency selectivity. The upper bound of the frequency range is limited by the RC time constant of hair cells because the sharpness of tuning requires that the resonance frequency must be…
Active phenomena which involve force generation and motion play a key role in a number of phenomena in living cells such as cell motility, muscle contraction and the active transport of material and organelles. Here we discuss mechanical…
We built a flexible platform to study the mechanical operation of the organ of Corti (OoC) in the transduction of basilar membrane (BM) vibrations to oscillations of an inner hair cell bundle (IHB). The anatomical components that we…
In the ear, hair cells transform mechanical stimuli into neuronal signals with great sensitivity relying on certain active processes. Individual hair cell bundles of non-mammals such as frogs and turtles are known to show spontaneous…
We study the dynamics of intracellular calcium oscillations in the presence of proteins that bind calcium on multiple sites and that are generally believed to act as passive calcium buffers in cells. We find that multisite calcium-binding…
Mechanoelectrical transduction in the inner ear is a biophysical process underlying the senses of hearing and balance. The key players involved in this process are mechanosensitive ion channels. They are located in the stereocilia of hair…
The extraordinary sensitivity of the mammalian inner ear has captivated scientists for decades, largely due to the crucial role played by the outer hair cells (OHCs) and their unique electromotile properties. Typically arranged in three…
Electromotility of outer hair cells (OHCs) has been extensively studied with in vitro experiments because of its physiological significance in the cochlear amplifier, which provides the exquisite sensitivity and frequency selectivity of the…
We investigate the stimulus-dependent tuning properties of a noisy ionic conductance model for intrinsic subthreshold oscillations in membrane potential and associated spike generation. On depolarization by an applied current, the model…
Modelling noisy oscillations of active systems is one of the current challenges in physics and biology. Because the physical mechanisms of such processes are often difficult to identify, we propose a linear stochastic model driven by a…
The outer hair cell (OHC) of the organ of Corti underlies a mechanically based process that enhances hearing, termed cochlear amplification. The cell possesses a unique motor protein, prestin, which senses voltage and consequently changes…
Neurons rely on two interdependent mechanisms, homeostasis and neuromodulation, to maintain robust and adaptable functionality. Calcium homeostasis stabilizes neuronal activity by adjusting ionic conductances, whereas neuromodulation…
Many types of neurons exhibit spike rate adaptation, mediated by intrinsic slow $\mathrm{K}^+$-currents, which effectively inhibit neuronal responses. How these adaptation currents change the relationship between in-vivo like fluctuating…