The sensory epithelium of the inner ear is called the organ of Corti after the Italian scientist who first described it. Its orderly rows of outer hair cells is unique among the organs of the body.

In the depths of your inner ear lies one of biology’s most intricate ... incoming sound waves into surface waves along the basilar membrane — a hair-lined structure that responds differently ...

It was later determined that outer hair cell stereocilia are firmly embedded in the overlying tectorial membrane while inner hair cell stereocilia make only a tenuous connection. The outer hair cells ...