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Neurotransmitters in the Auditory System

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Encyclopedia of Neuroscience

Synonyms

Excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission at synapses in the central auditory system and cochlea

Definition

In the auditory (hearing) system, as in other parts of the nervous system, neurotransmitters are chemicals that cross a synapse and mediate nerve impulse transmission from one neuron to the next neuron, or from sensory cells (hair cells in the cochlea of the inner ear) to neurons, or from neurons to effector cells (in this case, the same sensory hair cells of the cochlea). Neurotransmitters typically excite or inhibit the neuron to enhance or reduce nerve impulse transmission, but they can also mediate long-term changes in the neuron, including maturation and learning. All of these functions involve interplay of different neurotransmitters, with some kinds modulating the effects of other kinds, to shape the response. For the auditory system, this results in accurate sound identification and localization, and the integration of audition with other sensory modalities and...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NIDCD/NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Ronald S. Petralia

Authors
  1. Ronald S. Petralia
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  2. Robert J. Wenthold
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Marc D. Binder

  2. Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Graduate School of Medicine University of Tokyo Hongo, Bunkyo‐ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Nobutaka Hirokawa

  3. Göttingen, Germany

    Uwe Windhorst

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg

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Petralia, R.S., Wenthold, R.J. (2009). Neurotransmitters in the Auditory System. In: Binder, M.D., Hirokawa, N., Windhorst, U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_3957

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