Reduced equations for an active model of the hydroelastic waves in the cochlea

Abstract

Building upon our earlier passive models for the cochlea [8,9], here we enhance the model with an active mechanism. Starting with a one-chamber simplification leading to a system of a time-dependent PDE in two spatial variables for the pressure coupled to a PDE in one spatial variable for the oscillation of the basilar membrane, we rigorously establish the validity of a dimension reduction to a system to two ODE's. We then present numerical simulations demonstrating the ability of this reduced active system to distinguish and amplify multi-frequency input signals.