A two-stage nonlinear cochlear model possesses automatic gain control.

A model of the cochlea is explored using as stimuli two simultaneously presented sinusoids of equal amplitude. The model consists of two stages: a linear bandpass filter, followed by a reservoir-type representation of the hair-cell/nerve-fiber complex. Fast Fourier transforms of the model's output were computed. While the amplitudes of the individual response components were strongly nonlinear functions of intensity, the ratio of the magnitudes of the response components at the frequencies of the two stimulating sinusoids was found to be nearly equal, over a wide intensity range, to the ratio of the amplitudes which those stimulating sinusoids possessed at the output of the filter. Thus the reservoir stage exerts "automatic gain control".