Abstract
The electrical response of any organ of the internal ear or lateral-line system depends upon the hair cell’s sensitivity to mechanical stimulation. This mechano-sensitivity resides in the hair bundle, a cluster of 20–300 stereocilia that extends from the apical surface of the cell. Sound, acceleration, or water motion causes movement of an accessory structure such as a tectorial membrane, otolithic membrane, or cupula, which in turn deflects the hair bundle’s tip. By opening transduction channels, excitatory deflection then produces a depolarizing receptor potential which modulates the cell’s release of synaptic transmitter and hence the activity in eighth-nerve fibers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Armstrong, C. M. and Bezanilla, F. (1974) Charge movement associated with the opening and closing of the activation gates of the Na channels. J. Gen. Physiol. 63, 533–552.
Corey, D. P. and Hudspeth, A. J. (1980) Mechanical stimulation and micromanipulation with piezoelectric bimorph elements. J. Neurosci. Meth. 3, 183–202.
Corey, D. P. and Hudspeth, A. J. (1983) Kinetics of the receptor current in bullfrog saccular hair cells. J. Neurosci. 3, 962–976.
Crawford, A. C. and Fettiplace, R. (1985) The mechanical properties of ciliary bundles of turtle cochlear hair cells. J. Physiol. 364, 359–379.
Eatock, R. A., Corey, D. P., and Hudspeth, A. J. (1987) Adaptation of mechanoelectrical transduction in hair cells of the bullfrog’s sacculus. J. Neurosci. 7, 2821–2836.
Flock, Å. and Strelioff, D. (1984) Sensory hairs in the mammalian hearing organ have graded and nonlinear mechanical properties. Nature 310, 597–599.
Guharay, F. and Sachs, F. (1984) Stretch-activated single ion channel currents in tissue-cultured embryonic chick skeletal muscle. J. Physiol. 352:685–701.
Holton, T. and Hudspeth, A. J. (1986) The transduction channel of hair cells from the bull-frog characterized by noise analysis. J. Physiol. 375, 195–227.
Howard, J. and Ashmore, J. F. (1986) Stiffness of sensory hair bundles in the sacculus of the frog. Hearing Res. 23, 93–104.
Howard, J. and Hudspeth, A. J. (1987a) Mechanical relaxation of the hair bundle mediates adaptation in mechanoelectrical transduction by the bullfrog’s saccular hair cell. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 3064–3068.
Howard, J. and A. J. Hudspeth (1987b) Adaptation of mechanoelectrical transduction in hair cells. In: Sensory Transduction (Eds.: Hudspeth, A. J., MacLeish, P. R., Margolis, F. L., and Wiesel, T. N.) Report of the 1987 FESN Study Group; Discussions in Neurosciences, Volume IV, Number 3; Fondation pour l’Etude du Système Nerveux Central et Périphérique, Geneva, pp. 138-145.
Howard, J. and Hudspeth, A. J. (1988) Compliance of the hair bundle associated with gating of mechanoelectrical transduction channels in the bullfrog’s saccular hair cell. Neuron 1, in press.
Howard, J., Roberts, W. M., and Hudspeth, A. J. (1988) Mechanoelectrical transduction by hair cells. Ann. Rev. Biophys. Biophys. Chem. 17, in press.
Hudspeth, A. J. (1985a) The cellular basis of hearing: the biophysics of hair cells. Science 230, 745–752.
Hudspeth, A. J. (1985b) Models for mechanoelectrical transduction by hair cells. In: Contemporary Sensory Neurobiology (Eds.: Correia, M. J. and Perachio, A. A.) Alan R. Liss, New York, pp. 193–205.
Hudspeth, A. J. and Corey, D. P. (1977) Sensitivity, polarity, and conductance change in the response of vertebrate hair cells to controlled mechanical stimuli. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 74, 2407–2411.
Huxley, A. F. and Simmons, R. M. (1971) Proposed mechanism of force generation in striated muscle. Nature 233, 533–538.
Pickles, J. O., Comis, S. D., and Osborne, M. P. (1984) Cross-links between stereocilia in the guinea pig organ of Corti, and their possible relation to sensory transduction. Hearing Res. 15, 103–112.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1989 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hudspeth, A.J., Roberts, W.M., Howard, J. (1989). Gating Compliance, a Reduction in Hair-Bundle Stiffness Associated with the Gating of Transduction Channels in Hair Cells from the Bullfrog’s Sacculus. In: Wilson, J.P., Kemp, D.T. (eds) Cochlear Mechanisms: Structure, Function, and Models. NATO ASI Series. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5640-0_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5640-0_15
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-5642-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-5640-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive