The hair cells of the vertebrate inner ear posses active mechanical processes to amplify their
inputs. The stereocilia bundle of various vertebrate animals can produce active movements.
Though standard stereocilia-based mechanisms to promote amplification persist in
mammals, an additional radically different mechanism evolved: the so-called somatic
electromotility which refers to the elongation/contraction of the outer hair cells'(OHC)
cylindrical cell body in response to membrane voltage changes. Somatic electromotility in …