Related papers: The Cochlear Tuning Curve
Since the seminal work by H.L.F. Helmholtz in 1863, to understand the basic principles of hearing has been a great, but still unresolved, challenge for physicists. Some time ago, it has been pointed out (Egu\'{\i}luz et al., Phys. Rev.…
Most sounds of interest consist of complex, time-dependent admixtures of tones of diverse frequencies and variable amplitudes. To detect and process these signals, the ear employs a highly nonlinear, adaptive, real-time spectral analyzer:…
Our hearing organ, the cochlea, evidently poises itself at a Hopf bifurcation to maximize tuning and amplification. We show that in this condition several effects are expected to be generic: compression of the dynamic range, infinitely…
The cochlea is our fluid-filled organ of hearing with a unique spiral shape. The physiological role of this shape remains unclear. Previous research has paid only little attention to the occurrence of transverse flow in the cochlea, in…
Cochlear wavenumber and impedance are mechanistic variables that encode information regarding how the cochlea works - specifically wave propagation and Organ of Corti dynamics. These mechanistic variables underlie interesting features of…
Sound produces surface waves along the cochlea's basilar membrane. To achieve the ear's astonishing frequency resolution and sensitivity to faint sounds, dissipation in the cochlea must be canceled via active processes in hair cells,…
The human cochlea is a remarkable device, able to discern extremely small amplitude sound pressure waves, and discriminate between very close frequencies. Simulation of the cochlea is computationally challenging due to its complex geometry,…
The human sense of hearing perceives a combination of sounds 'in tune' if the corresponding harmonic spectra are correlated, meaning that the neuronal excitation pattern in the inner ear exhibits some kind of order. Based on this…
In this work, we investigate the phenomenon of transverse resonance and transverse standing waves that occur within the cochlea of living organisms. It is demonstrated that the predisposing factor for their occurrence is the cochlear shape,…
The extraordinary sensitivity of the mammalian inner ear has captivated scientists for decades, largely due to the crucial role played by the outer hair cells (OHCs) and their unique electromotile properties. Typically arranged in three…
The cochlea's capacity to process a broad range of sound intensities has been linked to nonlinear amplification by critical oscillators. However, while the increasing sensitivity of a critical oscillator upon decreasing the stimulus…
The sensory-triggered activity of a neuron is typically characterized in terms of a tuning curve, which describes the neuron's average response as a function of a parameter that characterizes a physical stimulus. What determines the shapes…
The perceived pitch of a complex harmonic sound changes if the partials of the sound are frequency-shifted by a fixed amount. Simple mathematical rules that the perceived pitch could be expected to follow ('first pitch-shift') are violated…
We introduce the concept of self-tuned criticality as a general mechanism for signal detection in sensory systems. In the case of hearing, we argue that active amplification of faint sounds is provided by a dynamical system which is…
A mathematical model describing the coupling between two independent amplification mechanisms in auditory hair cells is proposed and analyzed. Hair cells are cells in the inner ear responsible for translating sound-induced mechanical…
In this paper, we study the motion by mean curvature of curves in the plane perturbed by scale-dependent noise. We first introduce a so-called scale-dependent noise from the physics background to the curve shortening flow. To be more…
A sound stimulus entering the inner ear excites a deformation of the basilar membrane which travels along the cochlea towards the apex. It is well established that this wave-like disturbance is amplified by an active system. Recently, it…
A new theory of mammalian hearing is presented, which accounts for the auditory image in the midbrain (inferior colliculus) of objects in the acoustical environment of the listener. It is shown that the ear is a temporal imaging system that…
An active dissipative process organizes auditory frequency analysis in the mammalian cochlea. A minimal active beam model reveals that a spatially varying viscous coupling operator, $\partial_{xx}\kappa\partial_{xx}$, generates dissipative…
It is proved that the measurement of the acoustic pressure on the ear membrane allows one to determine the shape of the ear $ uniquely.