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Abstract
Previous papers have shown that the shapes of rate-intensity functions of auditory
nerve fibres vary with spontaneous rate (Sachs and Abbas 1974; Sachs et al. 1989;
Winter et al. 1990; Yates et al. 1990), and that the variation is due to the nonlinear
properties of the basilar membrane. This paper examines the basilar membrane nonlinearity
and provides a semi-quantitative explanation for it in terms of previous models (Zwicker
1979; Patuzzi et al. 1989) and an analogue model. It thereby provides explanations
for the shapes of the basilar membrane input-output curves and for the way in which
they vary with trauma. The shapes of the neural rate-intensity functions are quantified
and shown to be consistent with the low-threshold data of Geisler et al. (1985). Several
nonlinear properties of the cochlea, such as recruitment, are also interpreted.