The Peripheral Auditory System
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this advanced course on the biology of hearing and deafness, covering the auditory periphery from inner-ear development through cochlear mechanics. Lectures, laboratory exercises, and discussions of primary research literature address functional anatomy of the inner ear, mechano-electric transduction by hair cells, outer hair cell electromotility and the cochlear amplifier, otoacoustic emissions, synaptic transmission, stimulus coding in auditory nerve responses, efferent control of cochlear function, and mechanisms of hair-cell damage and repair. The course also examines sensorineural hearing loss as a case study connecting basic mechanics to clinical dysfunction. Materials include course readings drawn from published research papers, making it suited to students who already have a background in neuroscience or physiology. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all materials are free to access with no certificate offered.