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The Cochlea

The Cochlea

The cochlea is a coiled structure in the inner ear that contains hair cells—the sensory receptors of the auditory system. Sound waves are transmitted to the cochlea by small bones attached to the eardrum called the ossicles, which vibrate the oval window that leads to the inner ear. This causes fluid in the chambers of the cochlea to move, vibrating the basilar membrane.

Anatomy of the Ear

Anatomy of the Ear

Auditory sensation, commonly called hearing, involves the transformation of sonic waves into neural impulses facilitated by the structures of the auditory organ. The prominent, flesh-like structure on the side of the head, called the auricle, directs sound waves towards the auditory canal. The auricle is often mislabeled as the pinna, a term more aligned with mobile structures like a feline's external ear. The auditory canal penetrates the cranium via the external auditory meatus of the...

Passive Filters

Passive Filters

Passive filters are utilized to shape the frequency spectrum of signals across a diverse array of applications. These filters, using only passive elements like resistors (R), inductors (L), and capacitors (C), are capable of selectively allowing or blocking certain frequency ranges without the need for external power sources.
Low-Pass Filters
Low-pass filters are designed to transmit signals with frequencies lower than the cutoff frequency, ωc, and attenuate those above it. The cutoff frequency...

Hair Cells

Hair Cells

Hair cells are the sensory receptors of the auditory system—they transduce mechanical sound waves into electrical energy that the nervous system can understand. Hair cells are located in the organ of Corti within the cochlea of the inner ear, between the basilar and tectorial membranes. The actual sensory receptors are called inner hair cells. The outer hair cells serve other functions, such as sound amplification in the cochlea, and are not discussed in detail here.

Active Filters

Active Filters

Active filters are electronic circuits that use operational amplifiers (op-amps), resistors, and capacitors to filter out unwanted frequency components from a signal. A first-order low-pass active filter is designed to pass signals with a frequency lower than a certain cutoff frequency and attenuate frequencies higher than that cutoff frequency. The transfer function for a first-order low-pass active filter is:

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 19, 2026

Morphological and Functional Evaluation of Ribbon Synapses at Specific Frequency Regions of the Mouse Cochlea

Morphological and Functional Evaluation of Ribbon Synapses at Specific Frequency Regions of the Mouse Cochlea

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High-frequency auditory filter shape for the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin.

David W Lemonds¹, Whitlow W L Au, Stephanie A Vlachos

¹Information Systems and Global Services, Lockheed Martin Corp., 3375 Koapaka Street, Suite I-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96819, USA.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

|August 17, 2012

Summary

Atlantic bottlenose dolphins possess high-frequency auditory filters. Their auditory system shows a constant bandwidth between 60-100 kHz, with equivalent rectangular bandwidths around 11-17% of tone frequencies.

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Area of Science:

Marine Biology
Bioacoustics
Auditory Neuroscience

Background:

Understanding cetacean auditory perception is crucial for marine mammal conservation.
High-frequency hearing capabilities in odontocetes (toothed whales) are essential for echolocation and communication.

Purpose of the Study:

To measure the high-frequency auditory filter shapes of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).
To characterize the bandwidth and Q-value of dolphin auditory filters across a range of frequencies.

Main Methods:

Auditory filter shapes were measured using notched noise masking centered on pure tone signals (40-100 kHz).
A bottlenose dolphin was trained to respond to auditory stimuli at a fixed distance.
Masked thresholds were determined using an adaptive staircase method with varying noise bandwidths.

Main Results:

Auditory filter shapes were approximated using a roex (p,r(r)) function.
A constant-Q value of approximately 8.4 modeled the data well between 40-100 kHz.
Between 60-100 kHz, a relatively constant 3 dB bandwidth (9.5-10 kHz) was observed, suggesting a constant-bandwidth system.

Conclusions:

The study provides quantitative data on the auditory filter characteristics of bottlenose dolphins at high frequencies.
The findings suggest a shift towards a constant-bandwidth auditory system in dolphins at higher frequencies.
These results contribute to understanding the acoustic processing capabilities of this marine mammal species.