Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 5 October 1973:
Vol. 182. no. 4107, pp. 64 - 66
DOI: 10.1126/science.182.4107.64
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Velocity and Displacement Responses in Auditory-Nerve Fibers

J. J. Zwislocki 1 and W. G. Sokolich 1

1 Laboratory of Sensory Communication, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13210

With the help of nonsiniusoidal acoustic stimuli, it is demonstrated that most fibers of the auditory nerve respond to both displacement and velocity of the basilar membrane. Except at very high stimulus levels, motion and displacement toward scala tympani produce excitation; motion and displacement toward scala vestibuli produce inhibition. The displacement and velocity responses interact. When both are excitatory or inhibitory, they reinforce each other; when they are of opposite nature, a partial cancellation occurs. The presence of both displacement and velocity responses in the single fibers suggests that outer and inner hair cells of the cochlea interact.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Nanomechanics of the subtectorial space caused by electromechanics of cochlear outer hair cells.
M. Nowotny and A. W. Gummer (2006)
PNAS 103, 2120-2125
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Mechanical bases of frequency tuning and neural excitation at the base of the cochlea: Comparison of basilar-membrane vibrations and auditory-nerve-fiber responses in chinchilla.
M. A. Ruggero, S. S. Narayan, A. N. Temchin, and A. Recio (2000)
PNAS 97, 11744-11750
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Davis--1961 Revisited: Signal Transmission in the Cochlear Hair Cell-Nerve Junction.
J. Tonndorf (1975)
Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 101, 528-535
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)