Subject: Question on a 1998 paper by A. Recio et al. From: "reinifrosch@xxxxxxxx" <reinifrosch@xxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:30:25 +0000 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Hello! I have a question on the paper "Basilar-membrane responses to clicks at the base of the chinchilla cochlea", by A. Recio, N. C. Rich, S. S. Narayan, and M. A. Ruggero (1998), JASA 103, 1972-1989: In Section I.C., they write: "[...] the laser beam was reflected from glass microbeads placed on the basilar membrane." Was there, at a given moment in time and on the BM of a given animal, one such microbead, or were there several? If the latter were the case, it would be understandable that, in Figs. 9 and 10 (L13), there are at least two active peaks, a high one at 9.0 kHz and a lower one at 8.1 kHz. For levels above 66 dB, the 8.1-kHz peak is higher than the 9.0-kHz one because they sit on the steep high-frequency-side slope of the passive peak centred at 6 kHz. The disappearance of these "notches" post mortem (Section II.D. of the paper) would then be due to the disappearance of all active peaks. Reinhart Frosch.. Reinhart Frosch, Dr. phil. nat., r. PSI and ETH Zurich, Sommerhaldenstr. 5B, CH-5200 Brugg. Phone: 0041 56 441 77 72. Mobile: 0041 79 754 30 32. E-mail: reinifrosch@xxxxxxxx .