Effect of absence of cochlear outer hair cells on behavioural auditory threshold

THE function of the two populations of sensory cells in the mammalian inner ear is not well understood. Anatomical evidence indicates that the inner hair cells (IHCs) and the outer hair cells (OHCs) play separate roles in the transduction of acoustic stimuli¹. Furthermore, there have been numerous proposals attributing different roles to the two hair cell populations in the production of the various cochlear potentials^2-5. On the other hand, theoretical considerations and the interpretation of data from several experiments have led to suggestions of different types of interaction between the OHCs and IHCs^6-8.