Evolution of the cochlea signals that displace the eardrum by a mere picometre. Because of its prominence and preserved state in the fossil record, until recently, the ear had been used to determine phylogeny. The ear itself contains different portions, including the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear and all of these show evolutionary changes that are often unique to each lineage [14]. It was the independent evolution of a tympanic middle ear in the Triassic era that produced strong selection pressures towards improved hearing organs in the separate lineages of land vertebrates. The cochlea is the tri-chambered auditory detection portion
Cochlea are important in some types of tests for hearing impairment, since they are present when the cochlea is working well, and less so when it is suffering from loss of OHC activity. Gap-junction proteins, called connexins, expressed in the cochlea play an important role in auditory functioning. Mutations in gap-junction genes have been found to cause syndromic and nonsyndromic deafness. Certain connexins, including connexin 30 and connexin 26, are prevalent in the two distinct gap-junction systems found in the cochlea. The epithelial-cell gap-junction network couples non-sensory epithelial cells, while the connective-tissue gap-junction network couples connective-tissue cells. Gap-junction channels recycle potassium