610 research outputs found
Making Sense Out of Our Senses
Our senses are essential to our lives and their enjoyment. How do they work? A research institute at Syracuse University is attempting to find out
Analysis of Sound in the Mammalian Ear: A History of Discoveries
The ear performs its extraordinarily fine analysis by mechanical rather than neural means. But much remains to be explored
A Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Model of the Cochlea
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, intricate construction and small physical size. We have
developed, and are continuing to refine, a detailed three-dimensional
computational model based on an accurate cochlear geometry obtained from
physical measurements. In the model, the immersed boundary method is used to
calculate the fluid-structure interactions produced in response to incoming
sound waves. The model includes a detailed and realistic description of the
various elastic structures present.
In this paper, we describe the computational model and its performance on the
latest generation of shared memory servers from Hewlett Packard. Using compiler
generated threads and OpenMP directives, we have achieved a high degree of
parallelism in the executable, which has made possible several large scale
numerical simulation experiments that study the interesting features of the
cochlear system. We show several results from these simulations, reproducing
some of the basic known characteristics of cochlear mechanics.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure
A ratchet mechanism for amplification in low-frequency mammalian hearing
The sensitivity and frequency selectivity of hearing result from tuned
amplification by an active process in the mechanoreceptive hair cells. In most
vertebrates the active process stems from the active motility of hair bundles.
The mammalian cochlea exhibits an additional form of mechanical activity termed
electromotility: its outer hair cells (OHCs) change length upon electrical
stimulation. The relative contributions of these two mechanisms to the active
process in the mammalian inner ear is the subject of intense current debate.
Here we show that active hair-bundle motility and electromotility can together
implement an efficient mechanism for amplification that functions like a
ratchet: sound-evoked forces acting on the basilar membrane are transmitted to
the hair bundles whereas electromotility decouples active hair-bundle forces
from the basilar membrane. This unidirectional coupling can extend the hearing
range well below the resonant frequency of the basilar membrane. It thereby
provides a concept for low-frequency hearing that accounts for a variety of
unexplained experimental observations from the cochlear apex, including the
shape and phase behavior of apical tuning curves, their lack of significant
nonlinearities, and the shape changes of threshold tuning curves of auditory
nerve fibers along the cochlea. The ratchet mechanism constitutes a general
design principle for implementing mechanical amplification in engineering
applications.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, plus Supplementary Information. Animation
available on the PNAS website (http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0914345107)
The Active Traveling Wave in the Cochlea
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 has been proposed that the active system consists of a set of
self-tuned critical oscillators which automatically operate at an oscillatory
instability. Here, we show how the concepts of a traveling wave and of
self-tuned critical oscillators can be combined to describe the nonlinear wave
in the cochlea.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
See What You Feel: A Crossmodal Tool for Measuring Haptic Size Illusions
The purpose of this research is to present the employment of a simple-to-use crossmodal method for measuring haptic size illusions. The method, that we call See what you feel, was tested by employing Uznadze’s classic haptic aftereffect in which two spheres physically identical (test spheres) appear different in size after that the hands holding them underwent an adaptation session with other two spheres (adapting spheres), one bigger and the other smaller than the two test spheres. To measure the entity of the illusion, a three-dimensional visual scale was created and participants were asked to find on it the spheres that corresponded in size to the spheres they were holding in their hands out of sight. The method, tested on 160 right-handed participants, is robust and easily understood by participants
Localization of the Cochlear Amplifier in Living Sensitive Ears
BACKGROUND: To detect soft sounds, the mammalian cochlea increases its sensitivity by amplifying incoming sounds up to one thousand times. Although the cochlear amplifier is thought to be a local cellular process at an area basal to the response peak on the spiral basilar membrane, its location has not been demonstrated experimentally. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using a sensitive laser interferometer to measure sub-nanometer vibrations at two locations along the basilar membrane in sensitive gerbil cochleae, here we show that the cochlea can boost soft sound-induced vibrations as much as 50 dB/mm at an area proximal to the response peak on the basilar membrane. The observed amplification works maximally at low sound levels and at frequencies immediately below the peak-response frequency of the measured apical location. The amplification decreases more than 65 dB/mm as sound levels increases. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: We conclude that the cochlea amplifier resides at a small longitudinal region basal to the response peak in the sensitive cochlea. These data provides critical information for advancing our knowledge on cochlear mechanisms responsible for the remarkable hearing sensitivity, frequency selectivity and dynamic range
- …