The Organ of Corti enables us to detect sounds in the range 20 Hz to 20 kHz because:

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Place (tonotopic) coding on the basilar membrane explains pitch detection: the basilar membrane is stiffer and narrower at the base and wider and more compliant at the apex, so incoming sound produces a traveling wave whose peak displacement location depends on frequency (high frequencies peak at the base, low frequencies at the apex).

1) Relevant knowledge points and concepts
- Mechanical properties of the basilar membrane vary systematically from base to apex.
- Sound causes a traveling wave along the cochlea; the wave amplitude reaches a maximum at a place determined by frequency (place principle).
- Bending of hair cell stereocilia at that location produces receptor potentials and neurotransmitter release, activating auditory nerve fibers.
- This spatial (place) encoding of frequency underlies sensitivity across ~20 Hz–20 kHz in humans.

2) Step-by-step reasoning
- A pressure wave enters the cochlea via the stapes, producing a fluid wave.
- The basilar membrane responds with a traveling wave whose envelope has a single peak position determined by the sound’s frequency.
- At that peak, the greatest vertical displacement causes maximal shearing between the tectorial membrane and stereocilia.
- Hair cells at that position are maximally depolarized, increasing firing in corresponding auditory nerve fibers; the brain interprets the location of maximal activation as pitch.

3) Calculations
- No numerical calculation is required; the explanation is mechanistic (place-dependent peak displacement produces maximal hair cell activation).

4) Why the correct answer is correct
- The first option states that hair cells are maximally activated where the stimulus produces maximum basilar membrane deflection. That succinctly describes the place principle and the organ of Corti’s mechanism for frequency discrimination across the audible range.

5) Why other options are incorrect
- Option 2 misleadingly implies nerve fibers fire at the stimulus frequency for all sounds; phase-locking occurs only at low frequencies and is limited—place coding, not strict one-to-one timing, explains high-frequency detection.
- Option 3 is false: amplitude and frequency are independent; amplitude encodes loudness, not pitch.
- Option 4 is incorrect because individual hair cells are not single-frequency “pixels”; groups of hair cells at a location respond to a narrow band of frequencies and tuning is distributed, not one hair cell = one frequency.

6) Conclusion
This confirms the correct answer: Hair cells are maximally activated at the position along the organ of Corti where the stimulus produces the maximum resonance (maximum basilar membrane deflection).

The Organ of Corti enables us to detect sounds in the range 20 Hz to 20 kHz because:Single choice

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