Cochlear-bone wave can yield a hearing sensation as well as otoacoustic emission

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel cochlear bone wave that can produce hearing sensations and otoacoustic emissions, offering new insights into cochlear mechanics and bone conduction pathways.

Contribution

It presents a new propagation mode through cochlear bone deformation, explaining bone conduction and otoacoustic emissions with a mathematical and computational model.

Findings

Cochlear bone deformation can generate a wave causing hearing sensations.

The wave explains properties of otoacoustic emissions.

Bone conduction can occur via this novel cochlear bone wave.

Abstract

A hearing sensation arises when the elastic basilar membrane inside the cochlea vibrates. The basilar membrane is typically set into motion through airborne sound that displaces the middle ear and induces a pressure difference across the membrane. A second, alternative pathway exists, however: stimulation of the cochlear bone vibrates the basilar membrane as well. This pathway, referred to as bone conduction, is increasingly used in the construction of headphones that bypass the ear canal and the middle ear. Furthermore, otoacoustic emissions, sounds generated inside the ear and measured in the ear canal, may not involve the usual wave on the basilar membrane, suggesting that additional cochlear structures are involved in their propagation. Here we describe a novel propagation mode that emerges through deformation of the cochlear bone. Through a mathematical and computational approach we demonstrate that this wave can explain bone conduction as well as numerous properties of otoacoustic emissions.