Firing features and potassium channel content of murine spiral ganglion neurons vary with cochlear location.

Neurons from varied regions of the central nervous system can show widely divergent responses to electrical stimuli that are determined by cell-specific differences in ion channel composition. The well-ordered and highly characterized peripheral auditory system allows one to explore the significance of this diversity during the final stages of postnatal development. We examined the electrophysiological features of murine spiral ganglion neurons in vitro at a time when recordings could be made from the cell bodies before myelination.