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Hearing

Aid from hair force

Nature volume 433, pages 810–811 (2005)Cite this article

Mammals hear with exquisite sensitivity and precision over a huge range of frequencies; tiny amplifiers in the inner ear make this possible. New results challenge current thinking on how these amplifiers work.

Our ability to hear relies on cells in the inner ear called hair cells — named after the bundle of 100 or so hair-like projections that protrudes from their upper surfaces. Sound bends the hair bundles, causing small electrical (‘transducer’) currents to flow, which in turn makes the hair cells signal the reception of sound to the brain. In mammals, the silent majority of the hair cells (the outer hair cells) do not talk to the brain, instead helping the inner hair cells — the true sensory receptors — to do so with more clarity than they could achieve by themselves. But how is this done?

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Figure 1: Cochlear amplification.

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  1. the School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9QG, Brighton, UK

    Corné Kros

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  1. Corné Kros
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Kros, C. Aid from hair force. Nature 433, 810–811 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/433810a

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