Sound perception in the ultrasonic region.

The mechanism of ultrasonic perception was investigated electrocochleographically in guinea pigs (1) to compare AP responses in normal animals with those in kanamycin-poisoned animals with a damaged outer hair cell system; (2) and to analyse the masking property of continuous ultrasonic sound upon the AP evoked by burst stimuli within the auditory field. The study revealed several facts indicating the breakdown of cochlear sharp frequency analysis in the transduction of ultrasonic sound. We concluded that the sound perception in the ultrasonic region could be performed by the inner hair cell system without any enhancement or modulation of the outer hair cell system, which was regarded as an important process in a recent model of cochlear micromechanics.