Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Investigating Outer Hair Cell Motility with a Combination of External Alternating Electrical Field Stimulation and High-speed Image Analysis
Published on: July 18, 2011
Micromechanical models for the Brownian motion of hair cell stereocilia
W A Svrcek-Seiler1, I C Gebeshuber, F Rattay
1TU-BioMed, Vienna University of Technology, Austria.
Abstract:
Brownian motion of the hairs (stereocilia) of amphibian hair cells has been shown in experiments to be in the range of some nm. Our models of the Brownian motion of coupled harmonic oscillators with mechanical properties of stereocilia lead to similar displacements. Computer simulation shows that stochastic fluctuations enhance the encoding of low level acoustic signals. Stochastic resonance lowers the detection threshold of auditory signals to amplitudes one order of magnitude lower than that of the Brownian motion.
Related Concept Videos
Hair Cells
The Cochlea
Microtubules in Cell Motility
Mechanism of Ciliary Motion
The cilia are made up of microtubules in a 9+2 arrangement, with nine microtubule doublet ring bundles, surrounding a pair of central singlet microtubule bundles. The doublet microtubule bundles are...
Equilibrium and Balance

