Abstract
It has been suggested that humans discriminate different frequency sounds with greater selectivity than other mammals. However, mechanisms that could underlie higher frequency selectivity in humans are unclear. Recent studies show that the tectorial membrane (TM) supports longitudinally propagating waves, and the spread of excitation of these TM waves has been implicated in controlling the tuning properties in a mutant mouse model of hearing. Here we compare TM morphology and waves in humans and mice and show that despite some differences in morphology, the spread of excitation of TM waves is similar in spatial extent. However, the cochlear maps of humans and mice differ significantly, with similar cochlear distances mapping to a narrower range of best frequencies in humans than in mice. By coupling different frequency ranges, TM waves could contribute to differences in frequency tuning in mammals, with the smaller human range of frequencies corresponding to sharper frequency tuning.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | To the Ear and Back Again - Advances in Auditory Biophysics |
| Subtitle of host publication | Proceedings of the 13th Mechanics of Hearing Workshop |
| Editors | Christopher Bergevin, Sunil Puria |
| Publisher | American Institute of Physics Inc. |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780735416703 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 31 2018 |
| Event | 13th Mechanics of Hearing Workshop: To the Ear and Back Again - Advances in Auditory Biophysics, MoH 2017 - St. Catharines, Canada Duration: Jun 19 2017 → Jun 24 2017 |
Publication series
| Name | AIP Conference Proceedings |
|---|---|
| Volume | 1965 |
| ISSN (Print) | 0094-243X |
| ISSN (Electronic) | 1551-7616 |
Other
| Other | 13th Mechanics of Hearing Workshop: To the Ear and Back Again - Advances in Auditory Biophysics, MoH 2017 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Canada |
| City | St. Catharines |
| Period | 6/19/17 → 6/24/17 |
Funding
This work was supported by NIH grant R01-DC00238. SF and JBS were supported in part by a training grant from the National Institutes of Health to the Speech and Hearing Biosciences and Technology Program in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health, Sciences, and Technology. The authors would like to thank Diane Jones for dissecting the human temporal bones from donors. We also thank Christopher A. Shera, John J. Guinan Jr, and Scott L. Page for their helpful comments and suggestions on this work.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy