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Organ of Corti

type of mechanoreceptor

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ1128309 ↗
Source-derived summary

In anatomy and physiology, the organ of Corti or spiral organ is the receptor organ for hearing, located in the cochlea of mammals. Structurally, the organ consists of a highly varied strip of epithelial cells, capable of transducing sensations of physical movement in the inner ear into neural encoding of sound. This process begins when external sound waves causes structures in the inner ear to vibrate, leading to the displacement of cochlear fluid and causing the movement of individual hair cells at the organ of Corti; hair cells in turn produce action potentials, which are electrochemical signals used by the nervous system.

Italian anatomist Alfonso Giacomo Gaspare Corti (1822–1876) discovered the organ of Corti in 1851. The structure evolved from the basilar papilla and is crucial for mechanotransduction in mammals.

Structure

The organ of Corti is located in the scala media of the cochlea of the inner ear between the vestibular duct and the tympanic duct and is composed of mechanosensory cells, known as hair cells. Strategically positioned on the basilar membrane of the organ of Corti are three rows of outer hair cells (OHCs) and one row of inner hair cells (IHCs). Surrounding these hair cells are supporting cells: Deiters cells, also called phalangeal cells, which have a close relation with the OHCs, and pillar cells, which separate and support both the OHCs and the IHCs.

Projecting from the tops of the hair cells are tiny finger-like projections called stereocilia, which are arranged in a graduated fashion with the shortest stereocilia on the outer rows and the longest in the center. This gradation is thought to be the most important anatomic feature of the organ of Corti because this allows the sensory cells superior tuning capability.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Organ of Corti” as type of mechanoreceptor. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1822, 1876, 1851—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Organ, Corti and type can be independently traced.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as type of mechanoreceptor. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1128309. The Library of Congress control number is sh85033099. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1822, 1876 and 1851.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Organ of Corti” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.