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Symposium Reports |
1 The Cochlear Neurotransmission Laboratory, Center for Hearing and Balance, Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21286, USA
The activity of individual afferent neurones in the mammalian cochlea can be driven by neurotransmitter released from a single synaptic ribbon in a single inner hair cell. Thus, a ribbon synapse must be able to transmit all the information on sound frequency, intensity and timing carried centrally. This task is made still more demanding by the process of binaural sound localization that utilizes separate computations of time and intensity, with temporal resolution as fine as 10 µs in central nuclei. These computations may rely in part on the fact that the response phase (at the characteristic frequency) of individual afferent neurones is invariant with intensity. Somehow, the ribbon synapse can provide stronger synaptic drive to signal varying intensity, without accompanying changes in transmission time that ordinarily occur during chemical neurotransmission. Recent ultrastructural and functional studies suggest features of the ribbon that may underlie these capabilities.
(Received 26 December 2004;
accepted after revision 15 April 2005;
first published online 21 April 2005)
Corresponding author P. A. Fuchs: 521 Traylor Building, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 720 Rutland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21205-2195, USA. Email: pfuchs{at}jhmi.edu
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