The ear shows no mechanical ringing after a tone abruptly stops.

Evidence

A ZT is a faint, decaying tonal percept that can arise following the presentation of a notched broadband noise and that can last up to 5–6 s. The pitch is always within the frequency range of the notch, and depends on the level of the noise and the width of the notch. Several findings indicate that ZTs are unlikely to be produced mechanically at the level of the cochlea. Normally, no otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) were found at the frequency corresponding to the pitch of the ZT, except in the rare case when a subject had a spontaneous OAE which could be made temporarily audible by a preceding notched noise (without increasing its physical level), and no beating was observed between ZTs and a soft physical tone (Krump 1993 ). Also, while low frequency tones at moderate to high levels can affect the level of evoked OAEs, they did not affect the ZT (Wiegrebe et al. 1995 ). Thus, no mechanical activity correlated to the ZT exists in the cochlea, and there is unlikely to be phase locking to ZTs in the auditory periphery. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5396 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Zwicker tones have no cochlear mechanical or otoacoustic correlate. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5396

Broader Connections

• Zwicker tones have no cochlear mechanical or otoacoustic correlate. #corroborates (0.85) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5396