sound- and motion-activated pore tagged posts

The snail-shell-shaped part of the inner ear that houses hair cells. Credit: Holt lab/Harvard Medical School

Scientists at Harvard Medical School say they have ended a 40-year-quest for the elusive identity of the sensor protein responsible for hearing and balance. The results of their research, reported Aug. 22 in Neuron, reveal that TMC1, a protein discovered in 2002, forms a sound- and motion-activated pore that allows the conversion of sound and head movement into nerve signals that travel to the brain – a signaling cascade that enables hearing and balance.

Scientists have long known that when the delicate cells in our inner ear detect sound and movement, they convert them into signals. Where and how this conversion occurs has been the subject of intense scientific debate...