Compound action potential and single acoustic nerve fibres activity generation: an equivalent neuron approach.

The peripheral acoustic system can be easily subdivided into three distinct subsystems: a mechanical one (middle ear and basilar membrane), the set of mechanical-to-neural transducers (the inner and outer hair cells) and the neural part. The functional behaviour of the external and middle ear is well known, but the processes concerned with the transduction of mechanical motion into neural activity are still under investigation. Actually the mechanism of transmission of information concerning acoustic stimuli to the central nervous pathways is not clearly known. On the basis of physiological knowledge, a mathematical model reproducing the pattern of activity of the acoustic nerve, in response to the most typical acoustic stimuli, is proposed. This has been simulated on a digital computer.