Sensory hairs as mechanical filters in crista ampullaris: passive through structure and active through contraction.
The present text is a summary of original work describing individual variation in mechanical filter properties between different sensory hair bundles in the frog crista ampullaris. The difference relies on a variation of the degree of development of stereocilia within each bundle. Active control of mechanical properties is implied by the finding that media that would induce contraction in a muscle cell cause a restriction of motility of the sensory hairs.
D000818:Animals; D006198:Hair Cells, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D006199:Hair Cells, Auditory, Inner / Q000502:physiology*; D011898:Ranidae