PSYC3318 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Basilar Membrane, Cochlear Implant, Tectorial Membrane
Document Summary
Inner hair cells- pear shaped, tips of stereocilia float free in endolymph, responsible for transducing sound into neural signals, connected to type 1 auditory nerve fibers. Outer hair cells- cylindrical, tips of stereocilia attached to tectorial membrane, serve to amplify and sharpen responses of inner hair cells, connected to type 2 auditory nerve fibers. Auditory system mechanisms are used to encode frequency in the neural signals sent to the brain frequency in represented by- place code, temporal code- suggest that the neurons firing rate matches the cycles per second. Works only for lower frequency- approximately 20-4000 or 5000hz due to limitations in cell firing rates and their ability to work collectively. Physiological frequency tuning curves frequency tuning of type 1 auditory nerve fibers can be almost entirely accounted for by the frequency tuning of the basilar membrane a purely mechanical factor. Place code provides relatively better frequency representation of high frequency sounds than of low frequency sounds.
