Measurement of Vibration of the Basilar Membrane in the Squirrel Monkey

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Abstract
The Mössbauer technique, which can be used to measure very small velocities, on the order of 0.2 mm/sec, has been used to measure the response of the basilar membrane to tones and clicks in squirrel monkeys. The results verify that there is a mechanical frequency analysis performed in the cochlea and that the traveling wave theory holds true. The resonance curves indicate that the tuning of the basilar membrane is greater than was thought. The basilar membrane in the 7–8 kHz region of the cochlea vibrates nonlinearly at frequencies near the “resonant frequency.” The click response shows that the “tail” of the decaying oscillatory response does not decrease in proportion to click amplitude while the early displacements of the basilar membrane have a nearly linear relationship with click amplitude. These results are in good agreement with the results of the measurements using tones as stimuli. Experiments examining postmortem behavior of the basilar membrane indicate a rapid decrease in the sensitivity of vibration along with a decrease of up to one octave in the “resonant” frequency within a six hour period after the animal's death. The shift in resonant frequency is accompanied by a corresponding shift in the phase characteristic. The low frequency slope of the resonance curve becomes 6 dB/octave exactly as Békésy found while the high frequency slope decreases slightly. Comparison of the mechanical resonance curves with the neural data for single auditory nerve fibers in the squirrel monkey indicates that the exquisite tuning exhibited in the nerve cannot be explained solely on the basis of the mechanical behavior of the basilar membrane.

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