We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Asymmetric vibrations in the organ of Corti by outer hair cells measured from excised gerbil cochlea.
- Authors
Lin, Wei-Ching; Macić, Anes; Becker, Jonathan; Nam, Jong-Hoon
- Abstract
Pending questions regarding cochlear amplification and tuning are hinged upon the organ of Corti (OoC) active mechanics: how outer hair cells modulate OoC vibrations. Our knowledge regarding OoC mechanics has advanced over the past decade thanks to the application of tomographic vibrometry. However, recent data from live cochlea experiments often led to diverging interpretations due to complicated interaction between passive and active responses, lack of image resolution in vibrometry, and ambiguous measurement angles. We present motion measurements and analyses of the OoC sub-components at the close-to-true cross-section, measured from acutely excised gerbil cochleae. Specifically, we focused on the vibrating patterns of the reticular lamina, the outer pillar cell, and the basilar membrane because they form a structural frame encasing active outer hair cells. For passive transmission, the OoC frame serves as a rigid truss. In contrast, motile outer hair cells exploit their frame structures to deflect the upper compartment of the OoC while minimally disturbing its bottom side (basilar membrane). Such asymmetric OoC vibrations due to outer hair cell motility explain how recent observations deviate from the classical cochlear amplification theory. We analyzed the organ of Corti motions, component by component. Outer hair cells exploit their supporting cells to boost vibrations of the upper part of the organ of Corti while minimally disturbing the basilar membrane.
- Subjects
CORTI'S organ; HAIR cells; COCHLEA; BASILAR membrane; COCHLEA physiology; GERBILS
- Publication
Communications Biology, 2024, Vol 7, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2399-3642
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s42003-024-06293-4