Postmortem and in vivo vibration responses to sound of the stapes and the umbo of human ears are surveyed. The magnitudes of umbo velocity responses recorded postmortem decay between 1 and 5 or 10 kHz at rates between 0 and −3 dB/octave. In contrast, the magnitudes of in vivo umbo vibration are relatively invariant over a wide frequency range, amply exceeding the bandwidth of the audiogram according to one report. Similarly, most studies of postmortem stapes vibration report velocities tuned to about 1 kHz, with magnitudes that decay at a rate of about −6 dB/octave at higher frequencies. In contrast, in vivo stapes responses are apparently only mildly tuned. We conjecture that the bandwidth of stapes vibration velocity in humans will eventually be shown to exceed the bandwidth of the audiogram, in line with findings in other amniotic vertebrates.
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April 01 2003
Middle-ear transmission in humans: wide-band, not frequency-tuned?
Mario A. Ruggero;
Mario A. Ruggero
Institute for Neuroscience and Hugh Knowles Center, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3550
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Andrei N. Temchin
Andrei N. Temchin
Institute for Neuroscience and Hugh Knowles Center, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3550
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Mario A. Ruggero
Andrei N. Temchin
Institute for Neuroscience and Hugh Knowles Center, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3550
ARLO 4, 53–58 (2003)
Article history
Received:
November 02 2002
Accepted:
January 22 2003
Citation
Mario A. Ruggero, Andrei N. Temchin; Middle-ear transmission in humans: wide-band, not frequency-tuned?. ARLO 1 April 2003; 4 (2): 53–58. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1566924
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