title: Integrating the active process of hair cells with cochlear function.
abstract: Uniquely among human senses, hearing is not simply a passive response to stimulation. Our auditory system is instead enhanced by an active process in cochlear hair cells that amplifies acoustic signals several hundred-fold, sharpens frequency selectivity and broadens the ear's dynamic range. Active motility of the mechanoreceptive hair bundles underlies the active process in amphibians and some reptiles; in mammals, this mechanism operates in conjunction with prestin-based somatic motility. Both individual hair bundles and the cochlea as a whole operate near a dynamical instability, the Hopf bifurcation, which accounts for the cardinal features of the active process.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Sensory Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, New York 10065, USA.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Hudspeth
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D003051:Cochlea / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D006198:Hair Cells, Auditory / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular / Q000502:physiology