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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Dextran Labeling and Uptake in Live and Functional Murine Cochlear Hair Cells
Published on: February 8, 2020
Stochastic resonance in the mechanoelectrical transduction of hair cells
John F Lindner1, Matthew Bennett, Kurt Wiesenfeld
1Physics Department, The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio 44691, USA.
Abstract:
In transducing mechanical stimuli into electrical signals, at least some hair cells in vertebrate auditory and vestibular systems respond optimally to weak periodic signals at natural, nonzero noise intensities. We understand this stochastic resonance by constructing a faithful mechanical model reflecting the hair cell geometry and described by a nonlinear stochastic differential equation. This Langevin description elucidates the mechanism of hair cell stochastic resonance while supporting the hypothesis that noise plays a functional role in hearing.
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