Semicircular Canals Circumvent Brownian Motion Overload of Mechanoreceptor Hair Cells.

Vertebrate semicircular canals (SCC) first appeared in the vertebrates (i.e. ancestral fish) over 600 million years ago. In SCC the principal mechanoreceptors are hair cells, which as compared to cochlear hair cells are distinctly longer (70 vs. 7 μm), 10 times more compliant to bending (44 vs. 500...

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Main Authors: Mees Muller, Kier Heeck, Coen P H Elemans
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4957746?pdf=render
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author Mees Muller
Kier Heeck
Coen P H Elemans
author_facet Mees Muller
Kier Heeck
Coen P H Elemans
author_sort Mees Muller
collection DOAJ
description Vertebrate semicircular canals (SCC) first appeared in the vertebrates (i.e. ancestral fish) over 600 million years ago. In SCC the principal mechanoreceptors are hair cells, which as compared to cochlear hair cells are distinctly longer (70 vs. 7 μm), 10 times more compliant to bending (44 vs. 500 nN/m), and have a 100-fold higher tip displacement threshold (< 10 μm vs. <400 nm). We have developed biomechanical models of vertebrate hair cells where the bundle is approximated as a stiff, cylindrical elastic rod subject to friction and thermal agitation. Our models suggest that the above differences aid SCC hair cells in circumventing the masking effects of Brownian motion noise of about 70 nm, and thereby permit transduction of very low frequency (<10 Hz) signals. We observe that very low frequency mechanoreception requires increased stimulus amplitude, and argue that this is adaptive to circumvent Brownian motion overload at the hair bundles. We suggest that the selective advantage of detecting such low frequency stimuli may have favoured the evolution of large guiding structures such as semicircular canals and otoliths to overcome Brownian Motion noise at the level of the mechanoreceptors of the SCC.
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spelling doaj.art-293748937e7945c1a88e94dfe08e93a32022-12-22T01:50:47ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032016-01-01117e015942710.1371/journal.pone.0159427Semicircular Canals Circumvent Brownian Motion Overload of Mechanoreceptor Hair Cells.Mees MullerKier HeeckCoen P H ElemansVertebrate semicircular canals (SCC) first appeared in the vertebrates (i.e. ancestral fish) over 600 million years ago. In SCC the principal mechanoreceptors are hair cells, which as compared to cochlear hair cells are distinctly longer (70 vs. 7 μm), 10 times more compliant to bending (44 vs. 500 nN/m), and have a 100-fold higher tip displacement threshold (< 10 μm vs. <400 nm). We have developed biomechanical models of vertebrate hair cells where the bundle is approximated as a stiff, cylindrical elastic rod subject to friction and thermal agitation. Our models suggest that the above differences aid SCC hair cells in circumventing the masking effects of Brownian motion noise of about 70 nm, and thereby permit transduction of very low frequency (<10 Hz) signals. We observe that very low frequency mechanoreception requires increased stimulus amplitude, and argue that this is adaptive to circumvent Brownian motion overload at the hair bundles. We suggest that the selective advantage of detecting such low frequency stimuli may have favoured the evolution of large guiding structures such as semicircular canals and otoliths to overcome Brownian Motion noise at the level of the mechanoreceptors of the SCC.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4957746?pdf=render
spellingShingle Mees Muller
Kier Heeck
Coen P H Elemans
Semicircular Canals Circumvent Brownian Motion Overload of Mechanoreceptor Hair Cells.
PLoS ONE
title Semicircular Canals Circumvent Brownian Motion Overload of Mechanoreceptor Hair Cells.
title_full Semicircular Canals Circumvent Brownian Motion Overload of Mechanoreceptor Hair Cells.
title_fullStr Semicircular Canals Circumvent Brownian Motion Overload of Mechanoreceptor Hair Cells.
title_full_unstemmed Semicircular Canals Circumvent Brownian Motion Overload of Mechanoreceptor Hair Cells.
title_short Semicircular Canals Circumvent Brownian Motion Overload of Mechanoreceptor Hair Cells.
title_sort semicircular canals circumvent brownian motion overload of mechanoreceptor hair cells
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4957746?pdf=render
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AT coenphelemans semicircularcanalscircumventbrownianmotionoverloadofmechanoreceptorhaircells