A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ

Alfred L. Nuttall; Anthony J. Ricci; George Burwood; James M. Harte; Stefan Stenfelt; Per Cayé-Thomasen; Tianying Ren; Sripriya Ramamoorthy; Yuan Zhang; Teresa Wilson; Thomas Lunner; Brian C.J. Moore; Anders Fridberger

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06725-w

A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ

Alfred L. Nuttall, Anthony J. Ricci, George Burwood, James M. Harte, Stefan Stenfelt, Per Cayé-Thomasen, Tianying Ren, Sripriya Ramamoorthy, Yuan Zhang, Teresa Wilson, Thomas Lunner, Brian C.J. Moore, Anders Fridberger

Otolaryngology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

To understand speech, the slowly varying outline, or envelope, of the acoustic stimulus is used to distinguish words. A small amount of information about the envelope is sufficient for speech recognition, but the mechanism used by the auditory system to extract the envelope is not known. Several different theories have been proposed, including envelope detection by auditory nerve dendrites as well as various mechanisms involving the sensory hair cells. We used recordings from human and animal inner ears to show that the dominant mechanism for envelope detection is distortion introduced by mechanoelectrical transduction channels. This electrical distortion, which is not apparent in the sound-evoked vibrations of the basilar membrane, tracks the envelope, excites the auditory nerve, and transmits information about the shape of the envelope to the brain.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	4175
Journal	Nature communications
Volume	9
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06725-w
State	Published - Dec 1 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Chemistry(all)
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Physics and Astronomy(all)

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A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ. / Nuttall, Alfred L.; Ricci, Anthony J.; Burwood, George; Harte, James M.; Stenfelt, Stefan; Cayé-Thomasen, Per; Ren, Tianying; Ramamoorthy, Sripriya; Zhang, Yuan; Wilson, Teresa; Lunner, Thomas; Moore, Brian C.J.; Fridberger, Anders.

In: Nature communications, Vol. 9, No. 1, 4175, 01.12.2018.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Nuttall, Alfred L. ; Ricci, Anthony J. ; Burwood, George ; Harte, James M. ; Stenfelt, Stefan ; Cayé-Thomasen, Per ; Ren, Tianying ; Ramamoorthy, Sripriya ; Zhang, Yuan ; Wilson, Teresa ; Lunner, Thomas ; Moore, Brian C.J. ; Fridberger, Anders. / A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ. In: Nature communications. 2018 ; Vol. 9, No. 1.

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title = "A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ",

abstract = "To understand speech, the slowly varying outline, or envelope, of the acoustic stimulus is used to distinguish words. A small amount of information about the envelope is sufficient for speech recognition, but the mechanism used by the auditory system to extract the envelope is not known. Several different theories have been proposed, including envelope detection by auditory nerve dendrites as well as various mechanisms involving the sensory hair cells. We used recordings from human and animal inner ears to show that the dominant mechanism for envelope detection is distortion introduced by mechanoelectrical transduction channels. This electrical distortion, which is not apparent in the sound-evoked vibrations of the basilar membrane, tracks the envelope, excites the auditory nerve, and transmits information about the shape of the envelope to the brain.",

author = "Nuttall, {Alfred L.} and Ricci, {Anthony J.} and George Burwood and Harte, {James M.} and Stefan Stenfelt and Per Cay{\'e}-Thomasen and Tianying Ren and Sripriya Ramamoorthy and Yuan Zhang and Teresa Wilson and Thomas Lunner and Moore, {Brian C.J.} and Anders Fridberger",

note = "Funding Information: This study was supported by the Swedish Research Council (K2014-63X-14061-14-5 and 2017-06092), Torsten S{\"o}derberg foundation, Strategic research area for systems neurobiology (Region {\"O}sterg{\"o}tland), Link{\"o}ping University, and NIH-NIDCD (R01 DC-004554 to TR and R01 DC 000141 to A.L.N. and A.F.). Claus Elberling, Virum, Denmark, is acknowledged for helpful discussions, and Fredrik Elinder and Karl Grosh for comments on previous manuscript versions.",

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AU - Cayé-Thomasen, Per

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AU - Ramamoorthy, Sripriya

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AU - Wilson, Teresa

AU - Lunner, Thomas

AU - Moore, Brian C.J.

AU - Fridberger, Anders

N1 - Funding Information: This study was supported by the Swedish Research Council (K2014-63X-14061-14-5 and 2017-06092), Torsten Söderberg foundation, Strategic research area for systems neurobiology (Region Östergötland), Linköping University, and NIH-NIDCD (R01 DC-004554 to TR and R01 DC 000141 to A.L.N. and A.F.). Claus Elberling, Virum, Denmark, is acknowledged for helpful discussions, and Fredrik Elinder and Karl Grosh for comments on previous manuscript versions.

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