Cochlear precursors of neural pitch and loudness codes

It has been believed by most auditory scientists for over a century that the place of maximum vibration in the cochlea provides the main pitch code. Recently, we have obtained experimental evidence showing that this is quite unlikely, because the maximum of cochlear excitation changes its location with sound intensity, moving over the useful sound intensity range toward the cochlear base by a distance equivalent to more than one octave, whereas the pitch remains almost constant. In the presence of outer hair cell damage, the maximum is shifted toward the base by a similar distance, whereas the pitch is hardly affected. Of interest, the location of the apical cutoff of excitation is practically unaffected by sound intensity or cochlear damage. For any given sound frequency, the shift of the maximum with sound intensity precludes any single cochlear location from coding for loudness over the entire useful intensity range. The code is very likely provided by the maximum, which changes its location with the intensity, or by the whole cochlear excitation area. Of significance in this respect is our determination that the growth of the output of the whole auditory nerve parallels the growth of the excitation area. These findings may be useful for the coding of sound in cochlear implants, as well as for hearing aid dynamics.