Neuronal types in the chicken's statoacoustic ganglion

In the hearing organs of vertebrates, bipolar sensory (afferent) neurons innervate the hair cells (sensory epithelium) by their dendritic (peripheral) processes. In the mammalian cochlea, two neuronal types (I and II) innervate the inner and outer hair cells, respectively. By comparison, the correspondence between neuronal and hair cell types is uncertain in the avian auditory lagena (cochlea). The objective of the present study was to identify and map the relative distributions of neuronal types in the chicken's statoacoustic ganglion (SAG) by means of morphometric analysis and immunoreactivity to neuro-specific enolase (NSE) and neuro-filament protein 200 kDa (NFP-200).