Stereocilia Tip-Link Gating Spring (2D)

Cochlear hair cells convert mechanical motion into electricity through a single elegant mechanism: the tip link. This 2D simulator isolates one adjacent stereocilia pair, deflects it under your control, and computes the real tip-link extension, its tension, the Boltzmann open probability of the mechanotransduction channel it gates, and the resulting receptor current — all from the same gating-spring equations used in cochlear biophysics, plotted live against the deflection axis. A slow adaptation motor continuously resets the channel's operating point, reproducing the characteristic overshoot-and-relax response real hair cells show to a sustained deflection.