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Biophys. J. BioFAST: First Published February 2, 2007. doi:10.1529/biophysj.106.084087
© 2007 by the Biophysical Society.

A more recent version of this article appeared on May 1, 2007.
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92/9/3284    most recent
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CELL BIOPHYSICS

Evidence for oscillatory fluid flow in the tunnel of Corti

K. Domenica Karavitaki 1* and David C. Mountain 2

1 Harvard Medical School
2 Boston University

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: domenica{at}alum.mit.edu.

Submitted on February 27, 2006
Revised on April 10, 2006
Accepted on 16 November 2006


  Abstract
Outer hair cell (OHC) somatic motility plays a key role in mammalian cochlear frequency selectivity and hearing sensitivity, but the mechanism of cochlear amplification is not well understood and remains a matter of controversy. We have visualized and quantified the effects of electrically-evoked OHC somatic motility within the gerbil organ of Corti using an excised cochlear preparation. We found that OHC motility induces oscillatory motion of the medial olivocochlear fibers where they cross the tunnel of Corti (ToC) in their course to innervate the OHCs. We show that this motion is present at physiologically relevant frequencies and remains at locations distal to the OHC-excitation point. We interpret this fiber motion to be the result of oscillatory fluid flow in the ToC. We show, using a simple one-dimensional hydromechanical model of the ToC, that a fluid wave within the tunnel can travel without significant attenuation for distances larger than the wavelength of the cochlear traveling wave at its peak. This ToC fluid wave could interact with the cochlear traveling wave to amplify the motion of the basilar membrane. The ToC wave could also provide longitudinal coupling between adjacent sections of the basilar membrane and such coupling may be critical for cochlear amplification.

Key Words: cochlea, cochlear amplifier, electromotility, organ of Corti, outer hair cell




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Copyright © 2007 by the Biophysical Society.