Hair Cells
Hair Cells are critical to hearing; they're also the components that
are generally the cause of what is normally called sensorineural hearing
loss.
July 2007 - St. Jude Study Solves Mystery of
Mammalian Ears
July 2008 - Scientist create 3-D image of protein
filaments that facilitate hearing
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July 2008
Berkeley Lab researchers say that they have made a
significant advance towards understanding exactly how hearing works. The
researchers claim that they have for the first time pieced together the
three-dimensional structure of a gossamer-like filament of proteins in the
inner ear, which enables the sense of hearing and balance. They say that
their work may lead to improved treatments for some forms of hearing loss,
which affect about 10 per cent of people. The filaments help transform the
mechanical vibrations of sound into electrical signals that can be
interpreted by the brain, say the researchers. In their study report, they
have revealed that such filaments are only four nanometres wide, and 160
nanometres long. The world becomes silent when enough of them break, the
report adds.
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