A Model for Transducer Action in the Cochlea

My theory for the excitation of nerve impulses in the cochlea is both old and obvious. I t differs only in detail from my original presentations of 1953 and 1956 and hardly at all from my restatements of it in 1958 and 1961. In broad principle it is merely an application of the general theory of sensory ac-tion to the particular anatomical structure and electrical polarization of the cochlea. Dr. Wersall has given us a beautiful account of the fine structure of the sensory cells of the cochlea and their nerve endings as seen under the electron microscope. The detailed knowledge of the inner-vation of the cochlea, with its efferent supply in addition to the afferent fibers, and also the cilia, both their structure and their arrangement, repre-