A study on inhomogeneous characteristics of cochlea for spontaneous otoacoustic emissions

Otoacoustic emissions have been used for the better understanding of cochlear function. The fact that an inner ear can generate distortion-product otoacoustic emissions shows that the cochlea is nonlinear. The experimental evidences of the spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) imply that the cochlea is active. A modified model of Giguere is used to demonstrate that the cochlea is not only nonlinear and active but also inhomogeneous for SOAEs generation.