AUDITORY AND VESTIBULAR SYSTEMS

PARTES IMPORTANTES DEL THE AUDITORY SYSTEM

Importante en el Inner Ear: Cochlea, Basilar Membrane and Hair cells

Importante: Acoustic Nerve and Spiral Ganglion

Importante: Brainstem and Auditory Cortex

THE AUDITORY SYSTEM

Sound pressure waves are funneled through the acoustic
meatus of the external ear (E) to the tympanic
membrane (in green), and mechanically transduced
through the middle ear (M) into the fluid-filled chamber of
the inner ear(I).
THE AUDITORY PATHWAY(Ascending auditory pathway)

The auditory pathway to Brain is:

- Spiral Ganglion
- Auditory Nerve
- Cochlear Nucleus
- Olivary Nucleus
- Lateral Lemniscus
- Inferior Colliculus
- Medial Geniculate Body
- Auditory cortex

AUDOTORY PATHWAY ASCENDING AND

DESCENDING

TIPOS DE EXÁMENES CLINICOS DEL AUDITORY SYSTEM

SUBJECTIVE TESTS (PSYCHOACUSTICS):

- Pure Tone Audiometry

- Speech Audiometry
- Loudness

OBJECTIVE TESTS:

- Acoustic Reflex
- Tympanometry
- Otoacoustic Emissions (OAEs) ¡!
- Evoked Potetials (EP) ¡!
- Auditory Brain Responses (ABR)
- Auditory Steady State Responses (ASSR)
 - fMRI,MEG

THE OUTER EAR

Pinna(Auricle):
- Collect and focus sound waves
- Amplify and direct sounds to the ear canal

Ear canal(Meatus):
- 5-10dB in the 2-5kHz range
- Approximately 25mm long

THE MIDDLE EAR

Tympanic Membrane(Eardrum):
- Transmit sound from the air to the ossicular chain

Ossicular Chain(Ossicles):
Para obtener la misma vibración de la membrana en el líquido de la
cochlea se necesita aplicar una mayor fuerza/presión que
conseguimos mediante el conjunto de huesos-Ossicular Chain.

- Malleus, incus, and stapes (los huesesillos del oido)

- Impedance adapter (low-high)
- FORCEovalwindow-1.3xFORCEeardrum
- Pressure amplification factor-26

MIDDLE EAR TRANSFER FUNCTIONS

Cuttof frequency: frecuencia a la que ya
no escuchamos

La ganancia Gm nos interesa que sea

ideal de valor 1.
THE INNER EAR
Vestibular Complex:
- Integral part of the inner ear
- Directly connected to the cochlear fluid
(influence on sound transmition)
- Detect position and motion

Cochlea:
- Spectrum analyzer
- Transducer
- Active amplifier
- Active sound generator

Resumen la Cochlea is an spectrum analyzer y se divide

en Passive cochlea: Transduction; y Active cochlea: Amplifier

THE COCHLEA

Sección de la Cochlea: Wave propagation:

Importante: Basilar Membrane

PHYSIOLOGY OF THE COCHLEA

Sounds set the cochlear fluid into motion, and the fluid in turn sets the basilar membrane into
motion.

The mechanical properties of the basilar membrane and how they vary long the cochlea
determine which kind of wave motion the sound gives rise to.

Stiffness and propagation velocity, gradually decrease from base to apex.

Acts as a spectrum analyzer.

BASILAR MEMBRANE MOTION:

The basilar membrane motion can be simply modelled like a bank of harmonic oscillators with
proper frequencies exponentially decreasing from base to apex.

BASILAR MEMBRANE PLACE CODING

Through the perylimph, pressure waves translate into vibrating motion
of the cochlear portion.

The amplitude of the basilar membrane motion increases moving from

base to apex in the cochlea until it reaches a maximum oscillation
(resonance place) and then rapidly decreases.

Localization of the oscillation envelope maximum:

HIGH FREQUENCIES - base

LOW FREQUENCIES - apex

A MODEL OF THE BASILAR MEMBRANE MOTION (*ENTENDER ESTO)

The model here described is a simplified example, the relevant parameters of the model arºe:
GEORG VON BÉKÉNSY
- Received the Nobel Price in 1961: Discoveries of the physical mechanism of stimulation
within the cochlea.
- Reported patterns of mechanical motion in the inner ear using physical models of the
cochlea.

BASILAR MEMBRANE TUNING CURVES(*Mejorar esta parte)

The basilar membrane motion can be simply modelled like a bank of harmonic oscillators with
proper frequencies exponentially decreasing from base to apex.

COCHLEAR TUNING
Mediante un experimento activando la membrana basilar en un mono vivo y luego muerto, se
comprueba que la cochlea es un mecanismo activo, porque con el mono muerto la amplitud
del desplazamiento de la membrana basilar es menor que cuando estaba vivo.

ORGAN OF CORTI
- TM: Tectorial Membrane
- IHC: Inner Hair Cell
- OHC: Outer Hair Cell
- IP: Inner Pilar
- OP: Outer Pilar
- BM: Basilar Membrane

COCHLEAR INNERVATION(*Preguntar si es importante pq es horribe)

SENSORY TRANSDUCTION IN THE COCHLEA

HAIR BUNDLE
(Es):

• La característica definitoria de las células ciliadas es el haz de pelos, el orgánulo de

transducción sensorial formado por conjuntos ordenados de estereocilios.

• Las células ciliadas detectan la desviación del haz produciendo un potencial receptor, es decir,
una modulación dependiente del tiempo de su potencial de membrana.

• Esto es causado por la apertura de canales iónicos ubicados en los estereocilios (~100 por
OHC, ~60 por IHC) y sensibles a la deformación mecánica (canales mecanosensibles)

• El panel inferior muestra lo que sucede con estereocilios después de la exposición al ruido
(discoteca, lugares de trabajo ruidosos,…)

(En):

• The defining feature of hair cells is the hair bundle, the organelle of sensory transduction
formed by ordered arrays of stereocilia.

• Hair cells sense bundle deflection producing a receptor potential, i.e. a time dependent
modulation of their membrane potential.

• This is caused by the opening of ion channels located on the stereocilia (~100 per OHC, ~60
per IHC) and sensitive to mechanical deformation (mechano-sensitive channels)

• The bottom panel shows what happens tostereocilia after noise exposure (discotheque, noisy
workplaces, …)

INNER vs OUTER HAIR CELLS

INNER HAIR CELLS: Are the sensory receptors that are responsible for -95% of the afferent
information sent to the CNS.

OUTER HAIR CELLS: Can contract, and therefore act as motor units that amplifly the movement
of the basilar membrane in response to a stimulus-some of this added energy is transmitted
back through the middle ear, where it can be recorded as an Otoaciustc Emission. (Es): Pueden
contraerse y, por lo tanto, actuar como unidades motoras que amplifican el movimiento de la
membrana basilar en respuesta a un estímulo; parte de esta energía adicional se transmite de
regreso a través del oído medio, donde se puede registrar como una emisión otoacústica.

STEREOCILIA
(En): In the inner ear, stereocilia are the mechanosensing organelles of hair cells, which
respond to fluid motion in numerous types of animals for various functions, including hearing
and balance. They are about 10–50 micrometers in length and share some similar features of
microvilli. The hair cells turn the fluid pressure and other mechanical stimuli into electric
stimuli via the many microvilli that make up stereocilia rods. The modulation of the cell
membrane potential is caused by the influx of ion currents, carried mostly by potassium ions,
through open mechano-sensitive channels (EXCITATION) Movement in the opposite direction
closes the channels (INHIBITION).

(Es): En el oído interno, los estereocilios son los orgánulos mecanosensores de las células
ciliadas, que responden al movimiento de los fluidos en numerosos tipos de animales para
diversas funciones, incluidas la audición y el equilibrio. Miden entre 10 y 50 micrómetros de
largo y comparten algunas características similares de microvellosidades.[1] Las células ciliadas
convierten la presión del líquido y otros estímulos mecánicos en estímulos eléctricos a través
de las numerosas microvellosidades que forman los bastones de los estereocilios.

DAVIS`S BATTERY THEORY

The apical surface of the hair cell functions as a variable
resistor, whose impedance is altered by mechanical
displacement of the stereocilia.

The variable resistance modulates he current driven through

the cell by the positive endocochlear potential and the
negative intracellular potential.

VESTIBULAR COMPLEX
- The vestibular system determines the position and motion of your head in space.
- There are two components to monitoring motion.
- The vestibular system has two receptors organs to accomplish these tasks: The
semicircular canals and the otolith organs.
- The organs of the vestibular system are located in the temporal bone. The vestibular
system is made up of five organs:
 Three semicircular canals: Detect angular acceleration.
 Two otolith orans: Utricle and Saccule and detect linear acceleration.
 Vestibular Nerve Fibers: Synapse with hair cells; Cell bodies in Scarpa’s ganglion.

THE SEMICIRCULAR CANALS

-Three canals detect angular acceleration.

-They stretch along three perpendicular planes, each detecting motion

on one plane.
-Each canal is a continuous endolimph-filled loop.

-The hair cells (Cristae) sit in a small swelling at the base called the Ampulla.

-The cells are arranged as a single tuft that projects up, with the cilia extending upward into a
gelatinous Cupola.

-Angular accelleration causes the endolimph fluid to move pushing the cupola, which
stimulates the hair cells synapsing onto the vestibular nerve fibers.

A STEREO SYSTEM/ VERTIGO

Each tuft of hair cells is polarized:

• Direction + à excited

• Direction - à inhibited

The same arrangement is present on both sides ofthe head.

The canals on either side operate in a push-pull rhythm.

If both sides do not agree (e.g. they push at once) the response from the brain will
generate vertigo and nausea

Infections of the endolymph or damage to the inner ear are possible causes of vertigo

Possible treatment: If one vestibular nerve is cut, the brain will accommodate for information
coming from only one side.

THE OTOLITH ORGANS

The Utricle and Saccule detect linear acceleration.

- The Utricle lays horizontally

- The Saccule is oriented vertically

A major role of the Utricle and Saccule is to keep you vertically oriented
with respect to gravity.
If head and/or body start to tilt, the vestibular nuclei will automatically compensate with the
proper postural adjustments.

Constant small shifts allow us to keep our balance at each moment in time.

-Each of the two organs has a sheet of hair called Macula. The hair cell’s cilia
are embedded in a gelatinous cap. The cap contains small crystals called
OTOLITHIS made of biogenic calcium carbonate.

-Deflection of cilia causes excitation. Once you move at constant speed, the
otolith come to equilibrium and you no longer perceive the motion. Different
hair cells are arranged in different orientations to detect tilting along different
directions.

VESTIBULO-OCULAR REFLEX
Thanks to the semicircular canals, we are able to keep our
eyes still in space despite our head is continuously moving.

The semicircular canals exert direct control over the eyes

through the Vestibulo-Ocular reflex(VOR).

The eye is controlled by 3 pairs of muscles, each pair

interacts with one canal:

- Medial and lateral rectus

- Superior and inferior rectus
- Superior and inferior Oblique

CENTRAL VESTIBULAR PATHWAYS

Connections to medial and lateral vestibular nuclei.

Inputs to vestibular nuclei from Cerebellum, visual system,somatosensory system.

Outputs to Cerebellum, extraocular motor neurons, limb motor neurons, neck motor neurons.

Integration of body position and movement information.

Connections to neocortex through Ventral Posterior Nucleus of the Thalamus.