ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the electrical activity recorded from the cochlea. Recent technical developments and computer technology have made it possible to obtain extensive recordings from single fibers in the auditory system. Electrical recordings fall into two classes: those employing gross electrodes and those employing microelectrodes. As their names suggest, the division between the two types of electrodes depends on the size of the electrode tip. At lower sound intensities the cochlear microphonic does not show a threshold as one would expect from a neural response, but gets continuously smaller as one decreases the amplitude of the sound input. The best quantitative measurements of the location and frequency distribution of the cochlear microphonic are those of Honrubia and Ward. They inserted small electrodes into scala media via holes drilled in the region of the stria vascularis. The recording of whole nerve activity is more complicated than the preceding description would indicate.
