Effects of perilymph viscosity on low-frequency intracochlear pressures and the cochlear input impedance of the cat.

Cochlear model calculations are shown to be in reasonable agreement with recent low-frequency measurements of intracochlear pressures and the cochlear input impedance of the cat [V. Nedzelnitsky, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 68, 1676-1689 (1980); T. J. Lynch, III, V. Nedzelnitsky, and W. T. Peake, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 72, 108-130 (1982)]. Included in the cochlear model are perilymph viscosity, the measured variation of the area of the scala vestibuli with distance from the stapes [P. Dallos, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 48, 489-499 (1970)], and finite impedance of the round window membrane. The WKB approximation and its extension to the low-frequency region is used in order to exhibit explicitly the dependence of the model results on the cochlear parameters.