Nature Communications (Oct 2018)

A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ

  • Alfred L. Nuttall,
  • Anthony J. Ricci,
  • George Burwood,
  • James M. Harte,
  • Stefan Stenfelt,
  • Per Cayé-Thomasen,
  • Tianying Ren,
  • Sripriya Ramamoorthy,
  • Yuan Zhang,
  • Teresa Wilson,
  • Thomas Lunner,
  • Brian C. J. Moore,
  • Anders Fridberger

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06725-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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The sound envelope is important for speech perception. Here, the authors look at mechanisms by which the sound envelope is encoded, finding that it arises from distortion produced by mechanoelectrical transduction channels. Surprisingly, the envelope is not present in basilar membrane vibrations.