Frequency discrimination in the mammalian cochlea: theory versus experiment

A three-dimensional hydroelastic model for the motion in the cochlea is analyzed for the case of a pure-tone forcing. It is shown to agree well with experiment, including moderate intensity tuning curves and the frequency map, for a variety of mammals. In doing this, the parameters that are needed for each animal are geometric; thus the theory is easy to apply. The analysis also indicates that the fluid viscosity is the dominant dissipation mechanism, at least for moderate to high frequencies.