Electrically evoked reticular lamina and basilar membrane vibrations in mice with alpha tectorin C1509G mutation

Mechanical coupling between the tectorial membrane and the hair bundles of outer hair cells is crucial for stimulating mechanoelectrical transduction channels, which convert sound-induced vibrations into electrical signal, and for transmitting outer hair cell-generated force back to the basilar membrane to boost hearing sensitivity. It has been demonstrated that the detached tectorial membrane in mice with C1509G alpha tectorin mutation caused hearing loss, but enhanced electrically evoked otoacoustic emissions. To understand how the mutated cochlea emits sounds, the reticular lamina and basilar membrane vibrations were measured in the electrically stimulated cochlea in this study. The results showed that the electrically evoked basilar membrane vibration decreased dramatically while the reticular lamina vibration and otoacoustic emissions exhibited no significant change in C1509G mutation mice. This result indicates that a functional cochlear amplifier and a normal basilar membrane vibration are not requ...