Section on Biophysics, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland 20850-3211, USA. sulb@nidcd.nih.gov
A "release" mechanism, which has been experimentally observed as the fast component in the hair bundle's response to mechanical stimulation, appears similar to common mechanical relaxation with a damping effect. This observation is puzzling because such a response is expected to have an amplifying role in the mechanoelectrical transduction process in hair cells. Here it is shown that a release mechanism can indeed have a role in amplification, if it is associated with negative stiffness due to the gating of the mechonoelectric transducer channel.