The cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing

Abstract While separating sounds into frequency components and subsequently converting them into patterns of neural firing, the mammalian cochlea processes signal components in ways that depend strongly on frequency. Indeed, both the temporal structure of the response to transient stimuli and the sh...

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Autores principales:	Alessandro Altoè, Christopher A. Shera
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2020
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/db676512d01c4bb99edc4e081a191e01
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:db676512d01c4bb99edc4e081a191e012021-12-02T15:10:11ZThe cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing10.1038/s41598-020-77042-w2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/db676512d01c4bb99edc4e081a191e012020-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77042-whttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract While separating sounds into frequency components and subsequently converting them into patterns of neural firing, the mammalian cochlea processes signal components in ways that depend strongly on frequency. Indeed, both the temporal structure of the response to transient stimuli and the sharpness of frequency tuning differ dramatically between the apical and basal (i.e., the low- and high-frequency) regions of the cochlea. Although the mechanisms that give rise to these pronounced differences remain incompletely understood, they are generally attributed to tonotopic variations in the constituent hair cells or cytoarchitecture of the organ of Corti. As counterpoint to this view, we present a general acoustic treatment of the horn-like geometry of the cochlea, accompanied by a simple 3-D model to elucidate the theoretical predictions. We show that the main apical/basal functional differences can be accounted for by the known spatial gradients of cochlear dimensions, without the need to invoke mechanical specializations of the sensory tissue. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates that through its functional resemblance to an ear horn (aka ear trumpet), the geometry of the cochlear duct manifests tapering symmetry, a felicitous design principle that may have evolved not only to aid the analysis of natural sounds but to enhance the sensitivity of hearing.Alessandro AltoèChristopher A. SheraNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Alessandro Altoè Christopher A. Shera The cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing
description	Abstract While separating sounds into frequency components and subsequently converting them into patterns of neural firing, the mammalian cochlea processes signal components in ways that depend strongly on frequency. Indeed, both the temporal structure of the response to transient stimuli and the sharpness of frequency tuning differ dramatically between the apical and basal (i.e., the low- and high-frequency) regions of the cochlea. Although the mechanisms that give rise to these pronounced differences remain incompletely understood, they are generally attributed to tonotopic variations in the constituent hair cells or cytoarchitecture of the organ of Corti. As counterpoint to this view, we present a general acoustic treatment of the horn-like geometry of the cochlea, accompanied by a simple 3-D model to elucidate the theoretical predictions. We show that the main apical/basal functional differences can be accounted for by the known spatial gradients of cochlear dimensions, without the need to invoke mechanical specializations of the sensory tissue. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates that through its functional resemblance to an ear horn (aka ear trumpet), the geometry of the cochlear duct manifests tapering symmetry, a felicitous design principle that may have evolved not only to aid the analysis of natural sounds but to enhance the sensitivity of hearing.
format	article
author	Alessandro Altoè Christopher A. Shera
author_facet	Alessandro Altoè Christopher A. Shera
author_sort	Alessandro Altoè
title	The cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing
title_short	The cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing
title_full	The cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing
title_fullStr	The cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing
title_full_unstemmed	The cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing
title_sort	cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/db676512d01c4bb99edc4e081a191e01
work_keys_str_mv	AT alessandroaltoe thecochlearearhorngeometricoriginoftonotopicvariationsinauditorysignalprocessing AT christopherashera thecochlearearhorngeometricoriginoftonotopicvariationsinauditorysignalprocessing AT alessandroaltoe cochlearearhorngeometricoriginoftonotopicvariationsinauditorysignalprocessing AT christopherashera cochlearearhorngeometricoriginoftonotopicvariationsinauditorysignalprocessing
_version_	1718387723267473408

The cochlear ear horn: geometric origin of tonotopic variations in auditory signal processing

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