Elsevier

Hearing Research

Volume 50, Issues 1–2, December 1990, Pages 145-162
Hearing Research

Basilar membrane nonlinearity and its influence on auditory nerve rate-intensity functions

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-5955(90)90041-MGet rights and content

Abstract

Previous papers have shown that the shapes of rate-intensity functions of auditory nerve fibres vary with spontaneous rate (Sachs and Abbas 1974; Sachs et al. 1989; Winter et al. 1990; Yates et al. 1990) and that the variation is due to the nonlinear properties of the basilar membrane. This paper examines the basilar membrane nonlinearity and provides a semi-quantitative explanation for it in terms of previous models (Zwicker 1979; Patuzzi et al. 1989) and an analogue model. It thereby provides explanations for the shapes of the basilar membrane input-output curves and for the way in which they vary with trauma. The shapes of the neural rate-intensity functions are quantified and shown to be consistent with the low-threshold data of Geisler et al. (1985). Several nonlinear properties of the cochlea, such as recruitment, are also interpreted.

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      This change in shape is reminiscent of the transition from flat-saturating to sloping-saturating rate-level functions with decreasing spontaneous rate, as described in the literature (e.g., Sachs and Abbas, 1974; Winter et al., 1990). According to the rate-additivity model (Sachs and Abbas, 1974; Sachs et al., 1989; Yates, 1990; Yates et al., 1990; Müller and Robertson, 1991a), a perfect sigmoid should describe rate-level functions at frequencies far below CF, where the basilar membrane is linear, irrespective of ANF spontaneous rate. It should also describe rate-level functions at CF for ANFs having high spontaneous rates, because these ANFs have low thresholds and narrow dynamic ranges and rate saturation is reached at stimulus levels where the basilar membrane still operates in its linear range.

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      The present data provide actual experimental, quantitative evidence for the relevance of that assumption, as will be shown below. Rate-level curves have been modeled such that the effective rate (average rate minus spontaneous rate) more or less mimics the magnitude of basilar membrane displacement (Geisler, 1990; Sachs et al., 1989; Yates et al., 1990). In these applications, SR is handled as a separate quantity that represents an intrinsic property of individual ANFs.

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    Portions of this work were reported at the Boden Research Conference, Thredbo, New South Wales, Australia, February 1–3, 1989.

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