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J Neurophysiol (August 9, 2006). doi:10.1152/jn.00565.2006
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Submitted on May 27, 2006
Accepted on August 2, 2006

Autocorrelation analysis of hair bundle structure in the utricle

Michael H. Rowe1 and Ellengene H. Peterson1*

1 Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, United States

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: peterson{at}ohio.edu.

The ability of hair bundles to signal head movements and sounds depends significantly on their structure, but a quantitative picture of bundle structure has proved elusive. The problem is acute for vestibular organs because their hair bundles exhibit complex morphologies that vary with hair cell type and epithelial locus. Here we use autocorrelation analysis to quantify stereociliary arrays (the number, spacing, and distribution of stereocilia) on hair cells of the turtle utricle. Our first goal was to characterize their zonal variation across the macula, from medial extrastriola, through striola, to lateral extrastriola. This is important because it may help explain zonal variation in response dynamics of utricular hair cells and afferents. We also use differences in type I and II bundles to estimate array characteristics of these two hair cell types. Our second goal was to quantify variation in array orientation at single macular loci and use this to estimate directional tuning in utricular afferents. Our major findings are that, of the features measured, bundle width is the most distinctive feature of striolar arrays, and within the striola there are significant, negatively correlated gradients in stereocilia number and spacing that parallel gradients in bundle heights. Together with previous results on stereocilia number and bundle heights, our results support the hypothesis that striolar hair cells are specialized to signal high frequency/acceleration head movements. Finally, there is substantial variation in bundle orientation at single macular loci that may help explain why utricular afferents respond to stimuli orthogonal to their preferred directions.




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A. Li, J. Xue, and E. H. Peterson
Architecture of the Mouse Utricle: Macular Organization and Hair Bundle Heights
J Neurophysiol, February 1, 2008; 99(2): 718 - 733.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]




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