Outer hair cell damage steepens the basilar membrane’s growth function

Evidence

Damage to the outer hair cells altered the lowest level at which a velocity could be recorded (e.g., it elevated the threshold of response at this location). Damage also altered the slope of the I-O function, which became steeper than in the healthy cochlea. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 692

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to cochlear amplifier / OHC motility models in hearing science; the compressive nonlinearity is the assumed basis of the ‘loudness recruitment’ phenomenon in impaired hearing.