TY - JOUR
T1 - Reverse transduction measured in the living cochlea by low-coherence heterodyne interferometry
AU - Ren, Tianying
AU - He, Wenxuan
AU - Barr-Gillespie, Peter G.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Alfred L. Nuttall, John Brigande and other colleagues at Oregon Hearing Research Center for helpful discussion of the data, Edward Porsov for technical help, the reviewers of Nature Communications for suggestions for estimating the membrane potential of outer hair cells and for comparison of the current results with those in the literature and Wavemetrics, Inc. for consultation on signal analysis. This study was funded by NIH grants R01 DC004554, R01 DC002368 and P30 DC005983.
PY - 2016/1/6
Y1 - 2016/1/6
N2 - It is generally believed that the remarkable sensitivity and frequency selectivity of mammalian hearing depend on outer hair cell-generated force, which amplifies sound-induced vibrations inside the cochlea. This reverse transduction force production has never been demonstrated experimentally, however, in the living ear. Here by directly measuring microstructure vibrations inside the cochlear partition using a custom-built interferometer, we demonstrate that electrical stimulation can evoke both fast broadband and slow sharply tuned responses of the reticular lamina, but only a slow tuned response of the basilar membrane. Our results indicate that outer hair cells can generate sufficient force to drive the reticular lamina over all audible frequencies in living cochleae. Contrary to expectations, the cellular force causes a travelling wave rather than an immediate local vibration of the basilar membrane; this travelling wave vibrates in phase with the reticular lamina at the best frequency, and results in maximal vibration at the apical ends of outer hair cells.
AB - It is generally believed that the remarkable sensitivity and frequency selectivity of mammalian hearing depend on outer hair cell-generated force, which amplifies sound-induced vibrations inside the cochlea. This reverse transduction force production has never been demonstrated experimentally, however, in the living ear. Here by directly measuring microstructure vibrations inside the cochlear partition using a custom-built interferometer, we demonstrate that electrical stimulation can evoke both fast broadband and slow sharply tuned responses of the reticular lamina, but only a slow tuned response of the basilar membrane. Our results indicate that outer hair cells can generate sufficient force to drive the reticular lamina over all audible frequencies in living cochleae. Contrary to expectations, the cellular force causes a travelling wave rather than an immediate local vibration of the basilar membrane; this travelling wave vibrates in phase with the reticular lamina at the best frequency, and results in maximal vibration at the apical ends of outer hair cells.
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U2 - 10.1038/ncomms10282
DO - 10.1038/ncomms10282
M3 - Article
C2 - 26732830
AN - SCOPUS:84954305738
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 7
JO - Nature communications
JF - Nature communications
M1 - 10282
ER -