Hydraulic analogy: How long before the next bucket leaves for the brain?
Inner HC
To the Brain
Auditory nerve fiber
One way to think of this:
The auditory nerve is delivering the message from the cochlea to the brain
in ÒchunksÓ, like the buckets in a bucket brigade. Each bucket is under the
spigot for a certain period of time before it proceeds. Whatever message
(ÒwaterÓ) collects in the bucket during that time is what the brain has to
tell it what the sound amplitude was during that time period.