Release from Masking as a Means of Studying Hair Cell Function

Abstract

If mutual inhibition exists among the neural elements of the auditory pathway, then tonal contours should be enchanced by analogy with the mechanisms of Mach bands in vision. Experimental evidence is presented for enhancement or sharpening of contours by means of direct masking of pure tones by narrow-band noise. These results suggested that sharply defined regions of loss of hair cells in sharply delimited regions of the basilar membrane ought to be associated with gains in hearing level due to release from inhibition. Support for this notion was found in both the experimental and clinical literature.