Cochlear delays and traveling waves: comments on 'Experimental look at cochlear mechanics'

In a recent publication [Audiology 1992;31:301-312], A. Dancer argued that direct and indirect measures of basilar membrane motion are more consistent with theories of cochlear resonance than with the traveling-wave theory. The present communication reviews empirical evidence that contradicts Dancer's argument. Such evidence--recordings of mechanical responses of the basilar and Reissner's membranes to sound--strongly supports the existence of displacement waves that propagate on the basilar membrane from the base of the cochlea toward its apex.