TY - JOUR
T1 - The afferent synapse of cochlear hair cells
AU - Fuchs, Paul A.
AU - Glowatzki, Elisabeth
AU - Moser, Tobias
N1 - Funding Information:
Work in the authors’ laboratories is supported by the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders at the National Institutes of Health (P Fuchs and E Glowatzki), and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Max Planck Gesellschaft (T Moser).
PY - 2003/8
Y1 - 2003/8
N2 - Mechanosensory hair cells of the cochlea must serve as both transducers and presynaptic terminals, precisely releasing neurotransmitter to encode acoustic signals for the postsynaptic afferent neuron. Remarkably, each inner hair cell serves as the sole input for 10-30 individual afferent neurons, which requires extraordinary precision and reliability from the synaptic ribbons that marshal vesicular release onto each afferent. Recent studies of hair cell membrane capacitance and postsynaptic currents suggest that the synaptic ribbon may operate by simultaneous multi-vesicular release. This mechanism could serve to ensure the accurate timing of transmission, and further challenges our understanding of this synaptic nano-machine.
AB - Mechanosensory hair cells of the cochlea must serve as both transducers and presynaptic terminals, precisely releasing neurotransmitter to encode acoustic signals for the postsynaptic afferent neuron. Remarkably, each inner hair cell serves as the sole input for 10-30 individual afferent neurons, which requires extraordinary precision and reliability from the synaptic ribbons that marshal vesicular release onto each afferent. Recent studies of hair cell membrane capacitance and postsynaptic currents suggest that the synaptic ribbon may operate by simultaneous multi-vesicular release. This mechanism could serve to ensure the accurate timing of transmission, and further challenges our understanding of this synaptic nano-machine.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0959-4388(03)00098-9
DO - 10.1016/S0959-4388(03)00098-9
M3 - Review article
C2 - 12965293
AN - SCOPUS:0041878310
SN - 0959-4388
VL - 13
SP - 452
EP - 458
JO - Current Opinion in Neurobiology
JF - Current Opinion in Neurobiology
IS - 4
ER -