Cochlear microphonic responses of the peripheral auditory system to frequency-varying signals.

Cochlear partition displacement responses to rising and falling frequency sweeps were inferred from cochlear microphonic potentials recorded from three basal turn locations in the guinea pig cochlea. Relative phase measures of microphonic potentials recorded from the three locations suggested that displacements of the partition toward either scala vestibuli or scala tympani occurred closely together in time for rising sweeps and were dispersed in time for falling sweeps. These differences in peripheral response patterns to sweeps may explain, in part, asymmetric neural discharges elicited from higher neural centers.