IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v450y2007i7166d10.1038_nature06233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The origin of spontaneous activity in the developing auditory system

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas X. Tritsch

    (The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience,)

  • Eunyoung Yi

    (The Center for Hearing and Balance, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA)

  • Jonathan E. Gale

    (University College London)

  • Elisabeth Glowatzki

    (The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience,
    The Center for Hearing and Balance, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA)

  • Dwight E. Bergles

    (The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience,
    The Center for Hearing and Balance, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA)

Abstract

Spontaneous activity in the developing auditory system is required for neuronal survival as well as the refinement and maintenance of tonotopic maps in the brain. However, the mechanisms responsible for initiating auditory nerve firing in the absence of sound have not been determined. Here we show that supporting cells in the developing rat cochlea spontaneously release ATP, which causes nearby inner hair cells to depolarize and release glutamate, triggering discrete bursts of action potentials in primary auditory neurons. This endogenous, ATP-mediated signalling synchronizes the output of neighbouring inner hair cells, which may help refine tonotopic maps in the brain. Spontaneous ATP-dependent signalling rapidly subsides after the onset of hearing, thereby preventing this experience-independent activity from interfering with accurate encoding of sound. These data indicate that supporting cells in the organ of Corti initiate electrical activity in auditory nerves before hearing, pointing to an essential role for peripheral, non-sensory cells in the development of central auditory pathways.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas X. Tritsch & Eunyoung Yi & Jonathan E. Gale & Elisabeth Glowatzki & Dwight E. Bergles, 2007. "The origin of spontaneous activity in the developing auditory system," Nature, Nature, vol. 450(7166), pages 50-55, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:450:y:2007:i:7166:d:10.1038_nature06233
    DOI: 10.1038/nature06233
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06233
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature06233?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chao Chen & Linlin Sun & Avital Adler & Hang Zhou & Licheng Zhang & Lihai Zhang & Junhao Deng & Yang Bai & Jinhui Zhang & Guang Yang & Wen-Biao Gan & Peifu Tang, 2023. "Synchronized activity of sensory neurons initiates cortical synchrony in a model of neuropathic pain," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Barbara Trattner & Céline Marie Gravot & Benedikt Grothe & Lars Kunz, 2013. "Metabolic Maturation of Auditory Neurones in the Superior Olivary Complex," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(6), pages 1-14, June.
    3. A. Catalina Vélez-Ortega & Ruben Stepanyan & Stephanie E. Edelmann & Sara Torres-Gallego & Channy Park & Desislava A. Marinkova & Joshua S. Nowacki & Ghanshyam P. Sinha & Gregory I. Frolenkov, 2023. "TRPA1 activation in non-sensory supporting cells contributes to regulation of cochlear sensitivity after acoustic trauma," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:450:y:2007:i:7166:d:10.1038_nature06233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.