Re: AUDITORY Digest - 24 Mar 2002 to 25 Mar 2002 (#2002-43)

[Christopher Shera <shera@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jont,

You wrote....

> The distance between the tectorial membrane and the reticular
> lamina, where the cilia of the inner and outer hair cells live, is less
> than $\delta$, so this region must be modeled as having damping, at all
> frequencies \cite{Allen80a}. However this resistance appears at the
> characteristic place of the transmission line for each frequency,
> because the motion of the tectorial
> membrane relative to the reticular lamina is significant only near the
> characteristic place.

I guess I don't understand your argument against Gold. You argue
(convincingly) that damping is small at frequencies well
below CF. But Gold's focus was on tuning at frequencies
near CF. So to show that Gold was wrong, you need to
demonstrate that damping at CF is close to zero. The paragraph
above suggests that in fact damping near CF is not small.
So what's wrong with Gold's argument?


--
Christopher Shera                               617-573-4235 voice
Eaton-Peabody Laboratory                        617-720-4408 fax
243 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114-3096       http://epl.harvard.edu

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