聴覚はどのように音を分析しているか

-「波長説」の提案-

抄録

A new theory of sound analysis in the auditory system is proposed. The main function of the inner ear is not frequency analysis but transformation of acoustic information into impulses in the auditory neurons. An impulse evoked by sound stimulations in the inner ear has only two kinds of information, that is,1) “when” and 2) “in which neuron” it was evoked. The accuracy of the information is guaranteed by hair cells having the function of “phase locked” response to traveling waves and being aligned on the basement membrane.
These two kinds of information can be analyzed as precisely as is needed by the convergences and the divergences of neurons in the central auditory system. The nature of “tonality” in the auditory system is the inevitable attribute of the theory of sound analysis I propose, which is called “Wavelength Theory”. The resonate nature of the basement membrane functions to transform the sound intensity into the total number of impulses evoked in the inner ear. There is a conflict in “Place Theory” with respect to the insufficient transformation of the sound intensity.