[A hydrodynamic model of a cochlea with a discrete basilar membrane]

The hydrodynamic model of a cochlea (dimensions 520 x 120 x 100 (mm)), with the basilar membrane (BM) consisting of 50 discrete resonance links in the frequency band from 1 Hz to 128 Hz was constructed. Two ways of giving harmonic and impulse's signals at the model were used; a) through the membrane of the vestibular window (directly through the filled model liquid along the BM) and b) through the thread fastened to the basal part of the BM (by the travelling wave on the BM). It was shown that in the first case the transmission's time to apical part of the BM equals 0.8 ms and in the second--several seconds. The conclusion is that the main hydrodynamic processes of sound's coding in a cochlea are the processes according to the Helmholtz's resonance theory, but not Békésy's travelling wave theory.