Fig. 2.

DHSM blocks only the mechanoelectrical transducer channels of the outer hair cell. To examine whether it is really the transducer channel that is blocked by DHSM (100 μm), we statically deflected the hair bundle by ∼250 nm in the positive or negative direction (top), so that all transducer channels were either open or closed, respectively (bottom). The receptor current is unaltered by the presence of DHSM during static negative deflection, whereas it is reduced by DHSM during static positive deflection. This indicates that under these experimental conditions, DHSM blocks only the mechanoelectrical transducer channels. Horizontal barsindicate application of 100 μm DHSM.