Determination of the Cochlear Power Flux from Basilar Membrane Vibration Data

Abstract

We address the question of whether we can conclude just from basilar membrane (BM) vibration data that the cochlea is an active mechanical system. To this end we study an “inverse” problem for the cochlea in the framework of a short-wave model. Using the “inverse” problem formulation we compute the power flux through a channel cross-section from the BM velocity pattern. A rise in the power flux function indicates that the cochlea itself adds energy to the BM vibration. In order to avoid numerical errors as a result of too few data points, we have interpolated the BM velocity curves. The choice of interpolation method appears to influence the power flux function very much. Nonetheless, we conclude that the power flux method is able to determine from measured BM vibration patterns whether the underlying behaviour of the cochlea has been active or not.KeywordsAcoustic EmissionBasilar MembraneVibration DataPower FluxCochlear ModelThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.