Active mechanosensitivity by hair cells in the inner ear

Team Martin (2023)

Hearing is initiated in the inner ear by mechanical vibrations of mechanosensory “hair cells”

Hair cells respond to sound-evoked mechanical vibrations by producing electrical signals that then run along the auditory nerve to the brain. Our team develops experiments at the interface between physics and biology to shed light, at the scale of the single hair cell and of its molecular constituents, on the mechano-electrical transduction process that shapes our perception of sound at the periphery of the auditory system.