Why are hair cells important, and what type of therapy is being ...

[nelaaney]

Why are hair cells important, and what type of therapy is being developed to regenerate them?

Question 2

What are the five basic physiological organizing principles that are involved in the transmission of an acoustic stimulus to the brain?

[parker125]

Answer to Question 1

Hair cells are very important because they are the receptors for the senses of position and hearing. Scientists are in the process of developing gene therapy to regenerate hair cells. For a few years, scientists have recognized that avian hair cells regenerate. However, recently researchers have discovered a way to regenerate hair cells in mammals. In 2005, researchers genetically modified a cold virus that they injected into guinea pigs. As a result of this experiment, the guinea pigs developed new hair cells. In addition, the hair cells functioned when the guinea pigs were tested using auditory brainstem responses. Thus gene therapy holds great promise for the regeneration of hair cells in humans.

Answer to Question 2

The five basic physiological organizing principles that are involved in the transmission of an acoustic stimulus to the brain are as follows:

 The outer ear collects sounds and shapes frequency components.
 The middle ear matches the airborne acoustic signal with the fluid medium of the cochlea.
 The inner ear performs temporal and spectral analysis on the ongoing acoustic signal.
 The auditory pathway conveys and further processes the signal.
 The cerebral cortex receives the acoustic signal in a form that it can interpret.