A three-dimensional nonlinear active cochlear model analyzed by the WKB-numeric method.

A physiologically based nonlinear active cochlear model is presented. The model includes the three-dimensional viscous fluid effects, an orthotropic cochlear partition with dimensional and material property variation along its length, and a nonlinear active feed-forward mechanism of the organ of Corti. A hybrid asymptotic and numerical method combined with Fourier series expansions is used to provide a fast and efficient iterative procedure for modeling and simulation of the nonlinear responses in the active cochlea. The simulation results for the chinchilla cochlea compare very well with experimental measurements, capturing several nonlinear features observed in basilar membrane responses. These include compression of response with stimulus level, two-tone suppressions, and generation of harmonic distortion and distortion products.