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Hair cells of the auditory and vestibular systems are capable of detectingsounds that induce sub-nanometer vibrations of the hair bundle, below thestochastic noise levels of the surrounding fluid. Hair bundles of certainspecies are also known to oscillate without external stimulation, indicatingthe presence of an underlying active mechanism. We propose that chaoticdynamics enhance the sensitivity and temporal resolution of the hair bundleresponse, and provide experimental and theoretical evidence for this effect. Byvarying the viscosity and ionic composition of the surrounding fluid, we areable to modulate the degree of chaos observed in the hair bundle dynamics invitro. We consistently find that the hair bundle is most sensitive to astimulus of small amplitude when it is poised in the weakly chaotic regime.Further, we show that the response time to a force step decreases withincreasing levels of chaos. These results agree well with our numericalsimulations of a chaotic Hopf oscillator and suggest that chaos may beresponsible for the sensitivity and temporal resolution of hair cells.

Chaotic Dynamics Enhance the Sensitivity of Inner Ear Hair Cells