The cochlea – new insights into the conversion of sound into electrical signals

Abstract

The organ of hearing, the cochlea, has been under active investigation over the past 50 years. Recently new insights into gene defects producing deafness and into hair cell mechanisms and their control have been gained from a variety of experimental approaches. These approaches have relied on advances in electrophysiology, molecular biology, genetic screening and laser interferometry. Whereas once the cochlea was the private province of engineers and mathematicians, it is now open to all manner of investigation. We are gaining important insights into cochlear function at the molecular level (genes and proteins), cellular level (hair cells, supporting cells and neurones) and at the organ level. This Special Issue of The Journal of Physiology explores different aspects of our current understanding of cochlear function, from transduction and amplification and their control through to the encoding of sound into electrical signals that are rapidly transmitted across the inner hair cell afferent synapse to the brain.