A nonlinear and active model of the cochlea

Bastian Epp

Universität Oldenburg


A model of the cochlea was used to bridge the gap between model approaches commonly used to investigate phenomena related to otoacoustic emissions and more filter-based model approaches often used in psychoacoustics. In the present study, a nonlinear and active one-dimensional transmissionline model was developed that accounts for several aspects of physiological data with a single fixed parameter set. The model shows plausible excitation patterns and an input-output function similar to the linear-compressive-linear function as hypothesized in psychoacoustics. The model shows realistic results in a two-tone suppression paradigm and a plausible growth function of the 2f1 -f2 component of distortion product otoacoustic emissions. A plausible threshold in quiet including finestructure and spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAE) could be simulated. It is further shown that psychoacoustical data of modulation detection near threshold can be explained by the mechanical dynamics of the modeled healthy cochlea. It is discussed that such a model can be used to investigate the representation of acoustic signals at this early stage of the auditory pathway for both, physiological as well as psychoacoustical paradigms and that sich a model can be used as a fron-end for neural models of the auditory pathway.

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