STUDIES IN COCHLEAR HAIR CELL TRANSDUCTION

哺乳动物听觉器官中有两种感觉感受细胞 (the耳蜗），即所谓的内毛细胞和外毛细胞。 内毛细胞 将大多数听觉信息传递给大脑，而 外毛细胞可以放大到内毛细胞的输入。 我们 工作的目的是描述的运作和作用，在听证会上这些 两种细胞类型。 细胞内记录是从这些细胞中进行的， 麻醉的豚鼠 我们的技术可以记录两个细胞 类型和来自沿耳蜗沿着的不同位置。 这很重要 因为在不同的耳蜗处理不同的声音频率， 地点 有一些证据表明，外毛的运作模式 然而，观察是基于不同的技术，因此， 并非无可争议。 我们打算用同样的技术 从所有耳蜗位置记录，从而确定是否 外毛细胞功能存在纵向差异。 没有内毛细胞，就没有听觉。 如果没有听毛细胞， 听力严重受损。 有超过2000万的听力 在美国的残疾人，他们中的大多数人都遭受 由于毛细胞，特别是外毛细胞损伤而造成残疾。 一个 了解毛细胞的神经生物学是预防和 最终修复听力损失。 我们的工作一直都是为了 提供这样的基本理解。

There are two types of sensory receptor cell in the mammalian hearing organ (the cochlea), the so-called inner and outer hair cells. Inner hair cells convey most auditory information to the brain, whereas the role of the outer hair cells may be to amplify the input to the inner hair cells. Our work is designed to describe the operation and the role in hearing of these two cell types. Intracellular recordings are made from these cells in anesthetised guinea pigs. Our techniques allow recordings from both cell types and from different locations along the cochlea. This is important because different sound frequencies are processed at different cochlear locations. There is some evidence that the mode of operation of outer hair observations, however, are based on different techniques and, consequently, are not incontrovertible. We intend to use identical techniques in recording from all cochlear locations and thus to ascertain whether or not there are longitudinal differences in outer hair cell function. Without inner hair cells there is no hearing. Without hearing hair cells, hearing is severely deteriorated. There are over 20 million hearing impaired individuals in the U.S. The majority of them suffer their handicap due to hair cell, particularly outer hair cell, damage. An understanding of the neurobiology of hair cells is a key to prevention and eventual remediation of hearing loss. Our work has been and is designed to provide such fundamental understanding.