The Ear’s Gears: Mechanoelectrical Transduction by Hair Cells

FEB 01, 1994

Our senses of hearing and equilibrium depend upon biological strain gauges that can respond to mechanical stimuli of atomic dimensions and frequencies exceeding 20 kilohertz.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881410

A. J. Hudspeth

Vladislav S. Markin

Although we are generally unaware of the fact, our nervous systems constantly monitor a variety of mechanical stimuli. Neurons in the spinal cord and brain stem extend sensory terminals to the body’s surface and there provide us with sensitivity to touch. Other such neurons measure the tension in and extension of skeletal muscles. Sensory cells of the autonomic nervous system detect pressures within the body’s hollow organs, including blood vessels, the bladder, and the gut. The most sensitive of our mechanical receptors are hair cells, the sensory receptors of the internal ear. Such cells underlie our sensitivities to sound, to linear accelerations (including that due to gravity), and to angular accelerations.

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More about the authors

A. J. Hudspeth, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.

Vladislav S. Markin, Center for Basic Neuroscience Research.