Nonlinearity of mechanoelectrical transduction of outer hair cells as the source of nonlinear basilar-membrane motion and loudness recruitment.

The sound-induced travelling wave in the mammalian cochlea is believed to be enhanced and sharpened by a positive-feedback mechanism, causing the passive, linear growth function of the basilar membrane (BM) to become nonlinear. Based on direct measurements of the receptor potential of isolated outer hair cells, it is shown here how nonlinear BM motion might be due predominantly to the nonlinear growth function of the receptor potential. Since intensity coding in the inner ear is supposed to depend on an interaction of nonlinear BM motion with afferent fibres of different synaptic thresholds, intensity coding is expected to be directly dependent on the mechanoelectrical transduction of outer hair cells (OHC). According to the present experimental data and the feedback concept of outer hair cell action, disruption of the mechanoelectrical transduction of OHC leads to both a reduction of gain and linearizing of the response; that is, to both hearing loss and loudness recruitment.