TY - JOUR
T1 - Reply to "on cochlear impedances and the miscomputation of power gain" by Shera et al. J. Assoc. Re. Otolaryngol.
AU - Ren, Tianying
AU - He, Wenxuan
AU - Gillespie, Peter G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants R01 DC004554 to T.R. and R01 DC02368 to P.G. from the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health.
PY - 2011/12
Y1 - 2011/12
N2 - Using a scanning laser interferometer, we recently measured the volume velocity of the basilar membrane vibration in the sensitive gerbil cochlea and estimated that the cochlear power gain is ̃100 at low sound pressure levels (Ren et al., Nat Commun 2:216-223, 2011a). We thank Shera et al. for recognizing the technical challenges of our experiments and appreciating the beauty of our data in their comment (Shera et al., J Assoc Res Otolaryngol (in press), 2011). These authors argue that our analysis is inappropriate, invalidating our conclusion; moreover, they suggest that our finding of a power gain of >1 could arise from a passive structure or cochlea. While our analysis and interpretation remain to be verified, they are justified according to commonly accepted assumptions and theories in cochlear mechanics. Here, we also show that the mathematical demonstration of a power gain of >1 in a passive cochlea by Shera et al. is inconsistent with our data, which show that the volume velocity and power gain decrease and become <1 as the sound level increases.
AB - Using a scanning laser interferometer, we recently measured the volume velocity of the basilar membrane vibration in the sensitive gerbil cochlea and estimated that the cochlear power gain is ̃100 at low sound pressure levels (Ren et al., Nat Commun 2:216-223, 2011a). We thank Shera et al. for recognizing the technical challenges of our experiments and appreciating the beauty of our data in their comment (Shera et al., J Assoc Res Otolaryngol (in press), 2011). These authors argue that our analysis is inappropriate, invalidating our conclusion; moreover, they suggest that our finding of a power gain of >1 could arise from a passive structure or cochlea. While our analysis and interpretation remain to be verified, they are justified according to commonly accepted assumptions and theories in cochlear mechanics. Here, we also show that the mathematical demonstration of a power gain of >1 in a passive cochlea by Shera et al. is inconsistent with our data, which show that the volume velocity and power gain decrease and become <1 as the sound level increases.
KW - Basilar membrane vibration
KW - Cochlea
KW - Cochler amplifier
KW - Laser interferometer
KW - Traveling wave
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U2 - 10.1007/s10162-011-0295-y
DO - 10.1007/s10162-011-0295-y
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22015558
AN - SCOPUS:84855672296
SN - 1525-3961
VL - 12
SP - 677
EP - 680
JO - JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology
JF - JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology
IS - 6
ER -