ACTION CURRENTS IN THE AUDITORY NERVE IN RESPONSE TO ACOUSTICAL STIMULATION

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
By leading the action currents from the exposed auditory nerve of the cat through a vacuum tube amplifier to a telephone receiver, sound stimuli applied to the ear of the animal are faithfully reproduced in the nerve response. Simple tones, noises, and speech were received readily, and the frequency of the response was apparently identical with the frequency of the stimulus (125 to 4100 cycles per sec). Tissues remote from the auditory nerve did not give the response. The response ceased on death of the animal, on restriction of the blood supply to the head, on destruction of both cochleas, and on the introduction of a polarizing current into the nerve. The response was also obtained by placing the electrode on certain regions of the medulla and anterior surface of the brain stem. The finding that the frequency of impulses in the auditory nerve varies according to the frequency of stimulation seem to make necessary a revision, or else an abandonment, of the modern formulation of the Helmholtz theory of audition.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: