Active biomechanics of sensory hair bundles

Abstract

During the detection of sound, hair bundles perform a crucial step by responding to mechanical deflections and converting them into changes in electrical potential that subsequently lead to the release of neurotransmitter. The sensory hair bundle response is characterized by an essential nonlinearity and an energy-consuming amplification of the incoming sound. The active response has been shown to enhance the hair bundle’s sensitivity and frequency selectivity of detection. The biological phenomena shown by the bundle have been extensively studied in vitro, allowing comparisons to behaviors observed in vivo. The experimental observations have beenwell explained by numerical simulations, which describe the cellular mechanisms operant within the bundle, as well as by more sparse theoretical models, based on dynamical systems theory. The author thanks Justin Faber, Janaki Sheth, and Jessica Lin for helpful comments on the manuscript.