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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Hear Res. 2010 Feb 10;273(1-2):46–58. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2010.02.004

Figure 7.

Figure 7

Mechanical response of the TM to stimulation of the operculum. Refer to Figure 3C for the anatomy of the BP. Panels (a) and (b) give an example of the response pattern at 2.0 kHz. The amplitude is color-coded in panel (a), the phase is superposed on a light-microscopy image of the BP in panel (b). Panels (c) and (d) show the averaged response of 5 preparations (from Schoffelen et al., 2009). The amplitude of the TM response is largest close to the hair cell epithelium (see panel a). The response phase is uniform across the TM (see panel b). Hence, there is no evidence of a travelling wave on the TM of the BP. The response is tuned to a frequency near 2 kHz (see panel c). Schoffelen et al. (2009) infered that the motion of the TM is along the surface of the hair cell epithelium in the excitatory direction of the hair bundles. Thus, the major component of the TM motion is in and out the image planes in panels (a) and (b). [Reproduced from Schoffelen et al. (2009) with kind permission of the Association for Research in Otorhinolaryngology.]