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The Active Traveling Wave in the Cochlea

Thomas Duke·Frank Julicher
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Abstract

A sound stimulus entering the inner ear excites a deformation of the basilar membrane which travels along the cochlea towards the apex. It is well established that this wave-like disturbance is amplified by an active system. Recently, it has been proposed that the active system consists of a set of self-tuned critical oscillators which automatically operate at an oscillatory instability. Here, we show how the concepts of a traveling wave and of self-tuned critical oscillators can be combined to describe the nonlinear wave in the cochlea.

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Thomas Duke, Frank Julicher. 2003-03-06. The Active Traveling Wave in the Cochlea. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.90.158101

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