A life-sized physical model of the human cochlea with optical holographic readout.

Abstract

A life-sized physical model of the human cochlea is demonstrated. The model consists of two fluid-filled chambers separated by a polymer membrane and connected through a small hole that serves the same functional purpose as the helicotrema. The dimensions of the two chambers were made identical to those of scala vestibuli and scala tympani in the real cochlea. The membrane's width and length are the same as the values measured for the biological basilar membranes, and its thickness is chosen to give it appropriate rigidity. A piezoelectric transducer drives the system via an elastic window (acting as the oval window) on one side of the scala vestibuli. The resulting vibration pattern on the basilar membrane is investigated with an optical novelty filter, with detection sensitivity of 0.3 A at 2 kHz with a 1-Hz bandwidth. The overall response of this model is found to be a good extrapolation of Bekesy's low-frequency data. However, the tuning curves of this model are not as sharp as those found by Rhode, Johnstone, and others from the in vivo measurements. Possible implications of these results are discussed.