Phantom tones and suppressive masking by active nonlinear oscillation of the hair-cell bundle.

ABSTRACT: Processing of two-tone stimuli by the auditory system introduces prominent masking of one frequency component by the other as well as additional "phantom" tones that are absent in the sound input. Mechanical correlates of these psychophysical phenomena have been observed in sound-evoked mechanical vibrations of the mammalian cochlea and are thought to originate in sensory hair cells from the intrinsic nonlinearity associated with mechano-electrical transduction by ion channels. However, nonlinearity of the transducer is not sufficient to explain the rich phenomenology of two-tone interferences in hearing. Here we show that active oscillatory movements of single hair-cell bundles elicit two-tone suppression and distortions that are shaped by nonlinear amplification of periodic stimuli near

SUBMITTER: Barral J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3361408 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature