Conversion of sound into auditory nerve action potentials

Outer hair cells play a major role in the hearing process: they amplify the motion of the basilar membrane up to a 1000-fold and at the same time sharpen the excitation patterns. These patterns are converted by inner hair cells into action potentials of the auditory nerve. Outer hair cells are delic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:HNO 2016-11, Vol.64 (11), p.808-814
Main Authors: Encke, J, Kreh, J, Völk, F, Hemmert, W
Format: Article
Language:ger
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation - methods
Action Potentials
Animals
Cochlear Nerve - physiology
Evoked Potentials, Auditory - physiology
Hair Cells, Auditory, Outer - physiology
Hearing - physiology
Humans
Mechanotransduction, Cellular - physiology
Models, Neurological
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Summary:Outer hair cells play a major role in the hearing process: they amplify the motion of the basilar membrane up to a 1000-fold and at the same time sharpen the excitation patterns. These patterns are converted by inner hair cells into action potentials of the auditory nerve. Outer hair cells are delicate structures and easily damaged, e. g., by overexposure to noise. Hearing aids can amplify the amplitude of the excitation patterns, but they cannot restore their degraded frequency selectivity. Noise overexposure also leads to delayed degeneration of auditory nerve fibers, particularly those with low a spontaneous rate, which are important for the coding of sound in noise. However, this loss cannot be diagnosed by pure-tone audiometry.
ISSN:1433-0458
DOI:10.1007/s00106-016-0258-z