NEW IMPORTANT EVIDENCE FOR THE SUBMOLECULAR THEORY OF HEARING

The theory of hearing that remains widely accepted today was published in 1928 by Georg von Bekesy under the name traveling wave theory. The basis of this theory was Helmholtz's 1859 theory of sound wave resonance with the basilar membrane, wave amplification in the middle ear, and the hydrodynamics of cochlear fluids. The signal pathway to the auditory receptor is proposed to involve resonance between the longitudinal wave in the cochlear fluid and the transverse wave generated by the natural vibrations of the basilar membrane. The basilar membrane of the inner ear plays a fundamental role in the reception and transmission of information to the receptor. In the 1980s, Bekesy's theory was supplemented with mechanical amplification of sound in the inner ear by contraction of the OHC.[1,2,3]