Weddell, Thomas D. and Yarin, Yury M. and Drexl, Markus and Russell, Ian J. and Elliott, Stephen J. and Lukashkin, Andrei N. (2014) A novel mechanism of cochlear excitation during simultaneous stimulation and pressure relief through the round window. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 11 (93). p. 20131120. ISSN 1742-5689

The round window membrane (RW) provides pressure relief when the cochlea is excited by sound. Here we report measurements of cochlear function from guinea pigs when the cochlea was stimulated at acoustic frequencies by movements of a miniature magnet which partially occluded the RW. Maximum cochlear sensitivity, corresponding to subnanometer magnet displacements at neural thresholds, was observed for frequencies around 20 kHz, which is similar to that for acoustic stimulation. Neural response latencies to acoustic and RW stimulation were similar and taken to indicate that both means of stimulation resulted in the generation of conventional travelling waves along the cochlear partition. It was concluded that the relatively high impedance of the ossicles, as seen from the cochlea, enabled the region of the RW not occluded by the magnet, to act as a pressure shunt during RW stimulation. We propose that travelling waves, similar to those due to acoustic far-field pressure changes, are driven by a jet-like, near-field component of a complex fluid-pressure field, which is generated by the magnetically vibrated RW. Outcomes of research described here are theoretical and practical design principles for the development of new types of hearing aids, which utilise near-field, RW excitation of the cochlea.