Correlated movement of hair bundles coupled to the otolithic membrane in the bullfrog sacculus.

High-speed imaging with a CMOS camera was used to track the motion of multiple hair bundles of the bullfrog sacculus. To maintain the natural degree of intercell coupling, the overlying otolithic membrane was left intact atop the in vitro preparation. Effects of an incoming mechanical signal were mimicked by laterally deflecting the membrane with a glass probe at physiological amplitudes. The motion evoked in the underlying hair bundles was found to be highly phase-locked, yielding an entrained response across hundreds of cells. We imaged significant portions of the saccular epithelium, up to 40 x 350 microm(2), and observed a high degree of correlation over those scales.