Hair Cell Afferent Synapses: Function and Dysfunction

To provide a meaningful representation of the auditory landscape, mammalian cochlear hair cells are optimized to detect sounds over an incredibly broad range of frequencies and intensities with unparalleled accuracy. This ability is largely conferred by specialized ribbon synapses that continuously...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine 2019-12, Vol.9 (12), p.a033175
Main Authors: Johnson, Stuart L, Safieddine, Saaid, Mustapha, Mirna, Marcotti, Walter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Calcium Channels, L-Type - physiology
Hair Cells, Auditory - physiology
Humans
Life Sciences
Membrane Potentials
Neurobiology
Neurons and Cognition
Neurons, Afferent - physiology
Receptors, Glutamate - physiology
Synapses - physiology
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Summary:To provide a meaningful representation of the auditory landscape, mammalian cochlear hair cells are optimized to detect sounds over an incredibly broad range of frequencies and intensities with unparalleled accuracy. This ability is largely conferred by specialized ribbon synapses that continuously transmit acoustic information with high fidelity and sub-millisecond precision to the afferent dendrites of the spiral ganglion neurons. To achieve this extraordinary task, ribbon synapses employ a unique combination of molecules and mechanisms that are tailored to sounds of different frequencies. Here we review the current understanding of how the hair cell's presynaptic machinery and its postsynaptic afferent connections are formed, how they mature, and how their function is adapted for an accurate perception of sound.
ISSN:2157-1422
2472-5412
DOI:10.1101/cshperspect.a033175