ARTICLE

THE ULTRASTRUCTURE OF THE SENSORY HAIRS AND ASSOCIATED ORGANELLES OF THE COCHLEAR INNER HAIR CELL, WITH REFERENCE TO DIRECTIONAL SENSITIVITY

Arndt J. Duvall 3rd ¹, Åke Flock ¹, and Jan Wersäll ¹

¹ From the Department of Otolaryngology, Karolinska Sjukhuset and Gustav V Research Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Duvall is a Visiting National Institutes of Health Fellow from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Flock's present address is Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey

From the apical end of the inner hair cell of the organ of Corti in the guinea pig cochlea protrude four to five rows of stereocilia shaped in a pattern not unlike the wings of a bird. In the area devoid of cuticular substance facing toward the tunnel of Corti lies a consistently present centriole. The ultrastructure of this centriole is similar to that of the basal body of the kinocilium located in the periphery of the sensory hair bundles in the vestibular and lateral line organ sensory cells and to that of the centrioles of other cells. The physiological implications of the anatomical orientation of this centriole are discussed in terms of directional sensitivity.

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