Self-suppression in a locally active nonlinear model of the cochlea: A quasilinear approach

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Abstract
Mechanical input–output functions of the cochlea for pure‐tone stimuli are nonlinear for frequencies around the characteristic frequency. To simulate these functions, a long‐wave model of the cochlea containing a saturating pressuregenerator (located at the site of the outer hair cells) is solved in the frequency domain with a quasilinear method. In this method distortion products in the basilar‐membrane (BM) response are treated as perturbations and the nonlinear pressure waveform is approximated by the first‐order Fourier component. Because the saturating pressuregenerator forms part of a feedback loop the solution of the model is achieved in a number of iteration steps. Model results show flattening of the BM response at higher input pressures; this property, called self‐suppression, is due to saturation of the pressuregenerator. The resulting input–output functions display the main features of experimental curves. The third‐order distortion product in the BM velocity is always more than 25 dB below the primary BM velocity and does not influence the results of the computation; this justifies the use of the quasilinear method.

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