The organ of Corti is the sensory epithelium in the cochlea of the inner ear. It is
modeled as a shell-of-revolution structure with continuous and discrete components.
Our recent work has been on the inclusion of the viscous fluid. Measurements from
various laboratories provide the opportunity to refocus on the elastic properties.
The current detailed model for the organ of Corti is reasonably consistent
with diverse measurements. Most components have little stiffness in the
propagation direction. However, the isotropic stiffness of the pillar heads is
found to offer an explanation for the difference in point load and pressure
measurements. The individual rows of inner hair cell stereocilia with tip links and
the Hensen stripe are included, since these details are important for the
determination of the neural excitation. The results for low frequency show
a phase of tip link tension similar to auditory nerve measurements. The
nonlinearity of fluid in the small gaps is considered. A result is that as amplitude
increases, because of the near contact with the Hensen stripe, the excitation
changes polarity, similar to the peak-splitting neural behavior sometimes
observed.
Keywords
model, cochlea, Corti, pillars, tip link, point load