Response of a Model of the Peripheral Auditory System to Sinusoidal Stimuli
Thomas F Weiss · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1963
A model of the peripheral auditory system, which relates the firing patterns of single auditory-nerve fibers to acoustic stimuli, is discussed. Two aspects of the model's response to sinusoidal stimuli are compared with electrophysiological data obtained [N. Y.-S. Kiang, personal communications (1961–1963)] from single auditory-nerve fibers of the cat: (1) the equal response or “tuning” curves of individual fibers and (2) the sensitivity of a population of fibers as a function of frequency when each fiber responds to sinusoidal stimuli delivered at the “characteristic frequency” of the fiber. The model is composed of three elements: (1) a linear system intended to represent the outer, middle, and the mechanical part of the inner ear, (2) a nonlinear transducer intended to represent the sensory cells, and (3) a simplified representation of a nerve fiber that is probabilistic and contains a threshold and a refractory period. The model's responses to a variety of stimuli and its spontaneous activity were investigated with the aid of a digital computer (the TX-2 computer of the Lincoln Laboratory MIT). [Supported in part by the U. S. Army, the U. S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the U. S. Office of Naval Research; and in part by the National Science Foundation (grant G-16526); and the National Institutes of Health, U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (grant MH-04737-03).]