Middle-ear stiffness of the bottlenose dolphin tursiops truncatus

Previous research on the cetacean auditory system has consisted mostly of behavioral studies on a limited number of species. Little quantitative physiologic data exists on cetacean hearing. The frequency range of hearing varies greatly across different mammalian species. Differences among species co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of oceanic engineering 2006-01, Vol.31 (1), p.87-94
Main Authors: Miller, B.S., Zosuls, A.L., Ketten, D.R., Mountain, D.C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic noise
Acoustic power flow
Animals
Auditory system
cetacea
Displacement
Dolphins
Dolphins & porpoises
Ear
Ears & hearing
Force measurement
Frequency
Frequency ranges
Hearing
hearing range
Humans
Mammals
Marine
middle ear
odontocete
Stiffness
Transfer functions
Whales
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Summary:Previous research on the cetacean auditory system has consisted mostly of behavioral studies on a limited number of species. Little quantitative physiologic data exists on cetacean hearing. The frequency range of hearing varies greatly across different mammalian species. Differences among species correlate with differences in the middle-ear transfer function. Middle-ear transfer functions depend on the mechanical stiffness of the middle ear and the cochlear input impedance. The purpose of this study was to measure the middle-ear stiffness for the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), a species specialized for underwater high-frequency hearing and echolocation. Middle-ear stiffness was measured with a force probe that applied a known displacement to the stapes and measured the restoring force. The average middle-ear stiffness in ten dolphin ears was 1.37 N/mum, which is considerably higher than that reported for most terrestrial mammals. The relationship between middle-ear stiffness and low-frequency hearing cutoff in Tursiops was shown to be comparable to that of terrestrial mammals
ISSN:0364-9059
1558-1691
DOI:10.1109/JOE.2006.872208