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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.

Auditory Pathway

Auditory Pathway

Auditory pathways constitute the complex neural circuits responsible for transmitting and interpreting auditory information from the peripheral auditory system to the brain. Sound waves are initially captured by the outer ear, funneled through the ear canal, and reach the tympanic membrane (eardrum). These vibrations are transmitted via the middle ear's ossicles to the inner ear's cochlea.
When viewed cross-sectionally, the cochlea reveals the scala vestibuli and scala tympani flanking...

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location

The human brain perceives pitch through two primary mechanisms reflected in place theory and frequency theory. Each mechanism describes how sound waves are interpreted as specific pitches by the brain, offering insights into the intricate processes of auditory perception.
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by...

Hearing

Hearing

When we hear a sound, our nervous system is detecting sound waves—pressure waves of mechanical energy traveling through a medium. The frequency of the wave is perceived as pitch, while the amplitude is perceived as loudness.

Echo

Echo

The human ear cannot distinguish between two sources of sound if they happen to reach within a specific time interval, typically 0.1 seconds apart. More than this, and they are perceived as separate sources.
Imagine the sound is reflected back to the ears. Assuming that the source is very close to the human, the difference between hearing the two sounds—the emitted sound and the reflected sound—may be more than the minimum time for perceiving distinct sounds. If this is the case,...

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.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 25, 2025

Manufacturing and Using Piggy-back Multibarrel Electrodes for In vivo Pharmacological Manipulations of Neural Responses

Manufacturing and Using Piggy-back Multibarrel Electrodes for In vivo Pharmacological Manipulations of Neural Responses

Published on: January 18, 2013

High frequency sensitivity to interaural onset time differences in the bat inferior colliculus.

Zeeshan Haqqee¹, Roberto Valdizón-Rodríguez¹, Paul A Faure¹

¹Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.

Hearing Research

|December 19, 2020

Summary

Big brown bats

Keywords:

Binaural hearing Echolocation Interaural level difference Interaural time difference Sound localization Temporal processing

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Last Updated: Nov 25, 2025

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Behavioral Determination of Stimulus Pair Discrimination of Auditory Acoustic and Electrical Stimuli Using a Classical Conditioning and Heart-rate Approach

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Published on: June 6, 2012

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Auditory Neuroscience
Bioacoustics

Background:

Neurons in the auditory midbrain process binaural cues like interaural level difference (ILD) and interaural time difference (ITD).
Sensitivity to ongoing envelope ITDs is better understood than transient onset ITDs, especially in bats.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the response properties of single neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC) of Eptesicus fuscus to onset ITDs.
To understand how these neurons process transient onset ITDs for sound localization.

Main Methods:

Examined single neuron responses in the inferior colliculus (IC) of the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus).
Used high-frequency pure tones to assess responses to onset interaural time differences (ITDs).
Measured dynamic ITD response, time-intensity trading ratios, and ITD response function peaks.

Main Results:

IC neurons showed significant dynamic ITD responses within the behaviorally relevant range (±50 µs).
An average time-intensity trading ratio of 30 µs/dB was observed.
The average peak in the ITD response function was 268 µs, aligning with non-echolocating mammals.

Conclusions:

Echolocating bats demonstrate neural potential to utilize onset ITD cues for azimuthal sound localization at ultrasonic frequencies.
Findings contribute to understanding auditory processing and sound localization mechanisms in bats.