Hello Mathieu:
Interesting question. I think the strict spacing of the OHCs is to allow the system to be acoustically tuned. Indeed, in my PhD thesis I developed the idea that the three rows of OHCs is equivalent
to a three-finger surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator, which seems to come close to what you are working on. The reference is
Bell, A. (2005) The underwater piano: A resonance theory of cochlear mechanics. PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.
https://dx.doi.org/10.25911/5d7a2c6dcff7f
A more elaborate and mathematical approach is that of Bryn Davies, who thinks the cochlea is a graded metamaterial that acts like an acoustic rainbow sensor. Have a look at his recent papers listed at
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/bryn.davies. He has also recently published a book on the subject with Habib Ammari: “Metamaterial Analysis and Design: A Mathematical Treatment of Cochlea-inspired
Sensors” (de Gruyter Applied and Numerical Mathematics).
Best wishes for your PhD.
Andrew.
Andrew Bell
Eccles Division of Neuroscience
John Curtin School of Medical Research
The Australian National University
Canberra, ACT, Australia
From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Behalf Of Mathieu François Padlewski
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 3:23 AM
To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Question regarding periodicity in the cochlea
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Dear all,
I am a PhD student with a solid-state physics background and am currently working with systems involving periodic structures of active acoustic resonators (- a topic completely tangential to this field indeed).
Long story short, I coincidentally stumbled upon an electron microscope image of the cochlea and couldn't help but notice the remarkable periodic structure of the outer hair cells. In solids (and other
crystal systems), it turns out that periodicity is key in understanding its conducting and insulating properties.
I was wondering if the periodicity of the hair cells been considered to explain phenomena such as tinnitus, tuning curves, nonlinearity, etc… If so, could anyone provide the relevant literature?
Thanks in advance!
With kind regards,
Mathieu Padlewski
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Mathieu Padlewski Signal Processing Laboratory - Acoustics
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EPFL STI IEM LWE Station 11 |
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Phone:
+41 21 693 98 72 |
