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Published on: May 10, 2019
On the Analytic Origin of Two Species of Cochlear Eigenmodes
Asheesh S Momi1, Isabella R Graf2,3, Michael C Abbott1
1Department of Physics and Quantitative Biology Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Abstract:
After entering the ear, sound waves propagate as surface waves along the cochlea's basilar membrane. In recent work, we showed numerically that the system supports two types of modes: localized resonant modes, which underpin the modern understanding of cochlear mechanics, and a novel class of spatially extended modes. Here, we develop an analytic framework that explains the emergence of this mode structure. We show that extended modes arise from globally continuous standing-wave solutions, whereas localized modes result from internal resonance requiring matching across a singular point. These results clarify the generic structure of cochlear wave equations.
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