Hair cell

A sensory cell in the inner ear whose stereocilia convert sound-driven or motion-driven mechanical deflection into electrical signals.

Stereocilium: An actin-filled projection on a hair cell that moves with sound or head motion. Bundles of stereocilia bend together, initiating the hair cell’s response.
Organ of Corti: The sensory structure in the cochlea that contains auditory hair cells and supporting cells. It houses the hair cells that detect vibration along the cochlear partition.
Auditory transduction: The conversion of sound vibrations into electrical signals in the auditory system. Cochlear hair cells perform the sensory conversion at the start of hearing.
Inner hair cell: A cochlear hair cell that sends most auditory information to the brain through the auditory nerve. Inner hair cells provide the principal sensory output for hearing.
Mechanotransduction: The conversion of mechanical force into electrical or biochemical signals by cells. Hair cells are specialized mechanotransducers that detect tiny mechanical deflections.
Cochlea: The spiral-shaped inner-ear organ that analyzes sound through frequency-dependent vibrations. Its sensory epithelium contains hair cells tuned to different sound frequencies.
Tonotopy: The spatial arrangement of sound frequencies along an auditory structure. Different cochlear hair cells respond best to different frequencies along the cochlea.
Outer hair cell: A cochlear hair cell that changes length in response to voltage and amplifies local vibration. Outer hair cells actively sharpen and amplify cochlear responses, unlike inner hair cells.
Tip link: A protein filament connecting adjacent stereocilia in a hair bundle. Tip links transmit bundle deflection to mechanically gated ion channels.
Vestibular system: The inner-ear system that senses head motion and orientation for balance. Vestibular hair cells detect movement rather than airborne sound.

Linked from 19 pages