Contribution à l'étude du problème de la sélectivité tonale de l'oreille

Given that the spectral analysis by the basilar membrane of the ear, functioning as “camera acustica”, is not selective, the author explains the high differential faculty of the ear as an effect of nervous fluxes, producing a pressure on the organs of Corti. The propagation of the wave on the basilar membrane towards the helicotrema produces out-of-phase components in these fluxes.

Given that the fluxes are more efficaceous as these phases approach each other, the “symbolic” threshold impressed on the cortex can be represented by the synchronised action of the fluxes. The differential resolution of the ear, which varies with frequency, will depend on the two differences of phase.