A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ

Alfred L Nuttall; Anthony J Ricci; George Burwood; James M Harte; Stefan Stenfelt; Per Cayé-Thomasen; Tianying Ren; Sripriya Ramamoorthy; Yuan Zhang; Teresa Wilson; Thomas Lunner; Brian C J Moore; Anders Fridberger

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06725-w

A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ

Alfred L Nuttall, Anthony J Ricci, George Burwood, James M Harte, Stefan Stenfelt, Per Cayé-Thomasen, Tianying Ren, Sripriya Ramamoorthy, Yuan Zhang, Teresa Wilson, Thomas Lunner, Brian C J Moore, Anders Fridberger

Department of Clinical Medicine

10 Citations (Scopus)

33 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

To understand speech, the slowly varying outline, or envelope, of the acoustic stimulus is used to distinguish words. A small amount of information about the envelope is sufficient for speech recognition, but the mechanism used by the auditory system to extract the envelope is not known. Several different theories have been proposed, including envelope detection by auditory nerve dendrites as well as various mechanisms involving the sensory hair cells. We used recordings from human and animal inner ears to show that the dominant mechanism for envelope detection is distortion introduced by mechanoelectrical transduction channels. This electrical distortion, which is not apparent in the sound-evoked vibrations of the basilar membrane, tracks the envelope, excites the auditory nerve, and transmits information about the shape of the envelope to the brain.

Original language	English
Article number	4175
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	9
Number of pages	11
ISSN	2041-1723
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06725-w
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2018

Keywords

Acoustic Stimulation
Adult
Animals
Basilar Membrane/physiology
Biomechanical Phenomena
Cochlea/physiology
Electricity
Female
Hearing/physiology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Organ of Corti/physiology
Rats
Sound

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-018-06725-wLicence: CC BY

s41467-018-06725-wFinal published version, 2.33 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{bbfafe34a1594368b3e4c0ee8d1b4639,

title = "A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ",

abstract = "To understand speech, the slowly varying outline, or envelope, of the acoustic stimulus is used to distinguish words. A small amount of information about the envelope is sufficient for speech recognition, but the mechanism used by the auditory system to extract the envelope is not known. Several different theories have been proposed, including envelope detection by auditory nerve dendrites as well as various mechanisms involving the sensory hair cells. We used recordings from human and animal inner ears to show that the dominant mechanism for envelope detection is distortion introduced by mechanoelectrical transduction channels. This electrical distortion, which is not apparent in the sound-evoked vibrations of the basilar membrane, tracks the envelope, excites the auditory nerve, and transmits information about the shape of the envelope to the brain.",

keywords = "Acoustic Stimulation, Adult, Animals, Basilar Membrane/physiology, Biomechanical Phenomena, Cochlea/physiology, Electricity, Female, Hearing/physiology, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Organ of Corti/physiology, Rats, Sound",

author = "Nuttall, {Alfred L} and Ricci, {Anthony J} and George Burwood and Harte, {James M} and Stefan Stenfelt and Per Cay{\'e}-Thomasen and Tianying Ren and Sripriya Ramamoorthy and Yuan Zhang and Teresa Wilson and Thomas Lunner and Moore, {Brian C J} and Anders Fridberger",

year = "2018",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-018-06725-w",

language = "English",

volume = "9",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "nature publishing group",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ

AU - Nuttall, Alfred L

AU - Ricci, Anthony J

AU - Burwood, George

AU - Harte, James M

AU - Stenfelt, Stefan

AU - Cayé-Thomasen, Per

AU - Ren, Tianying

AU - Ramamoorthy, Sripriya

AU - Zhang, Yuan

AU - Wilson, Teresa

AU - Lunner, Thomas

AU - Moore, Brian C J

AU - Fridberger, Anders

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - To understand speech, the slowly varying outline, or envelope, of the acoustic stimulus is used to distinguish words. A small amount of information about the envelope is sufficient for speech recognition, but the mechanism used by the auditory system to extract the envelope is not known. Several different theories have been proposed, including envelope detection by auditory nerve dendrites as well as various mechanisms involving the sensory hair cells. We used recordings from human and animal inner ears to show that the dominant mechanism for envelope detection is distortion introduced by mechanoelectrical transduction channels. This electrical distortion, which is not apparent in the sound-evoked vibrations of the basilar membrane, tracks the envelope, excites the auditory nerve, and transmits information about the shape of the envelope to the brain.

AB - To understand speech, the slowly varying outline, or envelope, of the acoustic stimulus is used to distinguish words. A small amount of information about the envelope is sufficient for speech recognition, but the mechanism used by the auditory system to extract the envelope is not known. Several different theories have been proposed, including envelope detection by auditory nerve dendrites as well as various mechanisms involving the sensory hair cells. We used recordings from human and animal inner ears to show that the dominant mechanism for envelope detection is distortion introduced by mechanoelectrical transduction channels. This electrical distortion, which is not apparent in the sound-evoked vibrations of the basilar membrane, tracks the envelope, excites the auditory nerve, and transmits information about the shape of the envelope to the brain.

KW - Acoustic Stimulation

KW - Adult

KW - Animals

KW - Basilar Membrane/physiology

KW - Biomechanical Phenomena

KW - Cochlea/physiology

KW - Electricity

KW - Female

KW - Hearing/physiology

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Organ of Corti/physiology

KW - Rats

KW - Sound

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-06725-w

DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-06725-w

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 30302006

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 9

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 4175

ER -

A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this