  We propose amplitude death phenomenon as an underlying mechanism of auditory
transduction. When non-identical auditory hair bundles are elastically coupled,
their spontaneous oscillations can be quenched to form an amplitude death
state. We show, in this state, the hair cells are quiet and ready to detect
oscillatory stimulus with coupling-strength dependent amplification. Numerical
demonstration of the mechanism suggests that the non-uniformity of coupled hair
cells can contribute to noise-robust auditory transduction.
