The Significance of the Olivo-Cochlear Bundle for the Adaptation Mechanism of the Inner Ear

Abstract

Cochlear adaptation was registered by recording the whole-nerve responses of the auditory nerve in the guinea pig to series of tone bursts (60 dB). Decrease of amplitude of the action potential peak (N₁), observed in the course of these series, was abolished by injecting procaine into the internal auditory meatus, thus demonstrating efferent reflex-are activity, normally producing cochlear adaptation.