Outer hair cell loss reduces hearing sensitivity by up to 60 dB

Evidence

Three rows of outer hair cells and one row of inner hair cells line the length of the cochlea. The outer hair cells are responsible for enhancing the vibration on the basilar membrane, particularly at low levels, sharpening the tuning of the vibration on the basilar membrane, and compressing the range of vibration represented by the basilar membrane. These hair cells lead to the mammalian ability to hear very low level sounds, and loss of these hair cells can cause a reduction in hearing sensitivity up to about 60 dB (Sellick et al., 1982). — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 228

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes the functional roles of outer vs inner hair cells — a core concept for understanding sensorineural hearing loss types.
• XREF: Ties directly to the reader’s interest in normal vs impaired hearing perception and to audiology applications. — connects to: Active outer hair cell processing boosts internal response levels by up to 40 dB; Noise-induced hearing loss begins with impairment of outer hair cells; Mild hearing loss eliminates otoacoustic emissions but not psychoacoustic efferent measures (+2 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 228

Broader Connections

• Losing feedback hair cells impairs hearing far less than losing perceptive ones #corroborates (0.85) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 560
• Outer hair cells sit where basilar membrane vibration is greatest #expands (0.72) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 561