On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 03:06:16 +0100, CYBERYOGI =CO= Windler
<windle_c at informatik.fh-hamburg.de> wrote:
>Kalman Rubinson schrieb:
>> On Mon, 09 Dec 2002 23:29:42 +0100, CYBERYOGI =CO= Windler
>> <windle_c at informatik.fh-hamburg.de> wrote:
>>>>>>>(The construction of the sensor cells resembles
>>>rather liquid filled long balloons and has in fact no similarity with
>>>"hairs".)
>>>>>> There may be a language barrier between us but, although most of what
>> you present is difficult to relate to, this statement is quite wrong.
>> The cells, in fact, have cilia ('hairs') on their apical surface and
>> it is a consequence of the deflection of these cilia that the release
>> of transmitter is modulated. The fact that the cells, or, indeed, all
>> neurons, are "liquid filled long baloons" is irrelevant.
>>>> Kal
>>Well, in most beginners biology books the cells themselves are simply
>illustrated as "hairs" sticking in a blob of jelly that is shook by sound
>waves. That the sensor cells itself may have a small "beard" on top of them
>that is tickled by the basilar membrane motion is a different detail. What
>I wanted to explain here is the meaning of the "fluid pressure change"
>feature, which makes no sense when people imagine these cells as ordinary
>"hairs sticking in a pudding".
OK but the fluid pressure change is a differential between the scala
tympani and the scala vestibuli which displaces the basilar membrane
and all that it bears. "Hairs in sticky pudding" is a new one on me.
Kal
