Static length changes of cochlear outer hair cells can tune low-frequency hearing
Fig 5
The effect of geometry on outer hair cell displacement.
(A) In vitro experiments show that, under current stimulation, the outer hair cell pivots around its apex. This motion can be characterized by the angle α of somatic rotation. (B) The somatic rotation angle α increases with the size of the current stimulation and saturates for high values (black line, data from 1639 measurements from 24 preparations; dashed lines indicate the 95% confidence intervals). The displacement is directed towards the stria. The data are reused from earlier experiments [20]. (C) The predicted angle α of rotation of the outer hair cells varies with the size of the arc of the outer tunnel. A positive angle corresponds to a counter-clockwise rotation. The largest arc of the outer tunnel (blue) represents the biologically-realistic geometry and implies an outer hair cell rotation that agrees well with measurements in both direction and magnitude.