Functional Development of Hair Cells in the Mammalian Inner Ear

Sensory organs and the neural networks responsible for processing sensory information are supremely well adapted for detecting input from the external environment. Their challenge is to maximize sensitivity and fidelity over a wide dynamic range. Mammalian sensory hair cells process mechanical stimuli from sound, movement, and gravitational forces with unparalleled temporal precision from the very low frequency displacements in the vestibular system to as much as 180 kHz in the auditory system. Here we review the current understanding of how mammalian cochlear and vestibular systems orchestrate the functional development of hair cells from mechanoelectrical transduction in their apical hair bundles to synaptic transmission through their specialized ribbon synapses.