TY - GEN
T1 - Light-induced basilar membrane vibrations in the sensitive cochlea
AU - Grosh, Karl
AU - Ren, Tianying
AU - He, Wenxuan
AU - Fridberger, Anders
AU - Li, Yizeng
AU - Nankali, Amir
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
PY - 2015/12/31
Y1 - 2015/12/31
N2 - The exceptional sensitivity of mammalian hearing organ is attributed to an outer hair cell-mediated active process, where forces produced by sensory cells boost sound-induced vibrations, making soft sounds audible. This process is thought to be local, with each section of the hearing organ capable of amplifying sound-evoked movement, and nearly instantaneous, since amplification can work for sounds at frequencies up to 100 kHz in some species. To test these precepts, we developed a method for focally stimulating the living hearing organ with light. Light pulses caused intense and highly damped mechanical responses followed by traveling waves that developed with considerable delay. The delayed response was identical to movements evoked by click-like sounds. A physiologically based mathematical model shows that such waves engage the active process, enhancing hearing sensitivity. The experiments and the theoretical analysis show that the active process is neither local nor instantaneous, but requires mechanical waves traveling from the cochlear base toward its apex.
AB - The exceptional sensitivity of mammalian hearing organ is attributed to an outer hair cell-mediated active process, where forces produced by sensory cells boost sound-induced vibrations, making soft sounds audible. This process is thought to be local, with each section of the hearing organ capable of amplifying sound-evoked movement, and nearly instantaneous, since amplification can work for sounds at frequencies up to 100 kHz in some species. To test these precepts, we developed a method for focally stimulating the living hearing organ with light. Light pulses caused intense and highly damped mechanical responses followed by traveling waves that developed with considerable delay. The delayed response was identical to movements evoked by click-like sounds. A physiologically based mathematical model shows that such waves engage the active process, enhancing hearing sensitivity. The experiments and the theoretical analysis show that the active process is neither local nor instantaneous, but requires mechanical waves traveling from the cochlear base toward its apex.
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U2 - 10.1063/1.4939379
DO - 10.1063/1.4939379
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84984567420
T3 - AIP Conference Proceedings
BT - Mechanics of Hearing
A2 - Corey, David P.
A2 - Karavitaki, K. Domenica
PB - American Institute of Physics Inc.
T2 - 12th International Workshop on the Mechanics of Hearing: Protein to Perception
Y2 - 23 June 2014 through 29 June 2014
ER -