Abstract
It is believed that non-mammals have poor hearing at high frequencies because the sound-conduction performance of their single-ossicle middle ears declines above a certain frequency. To better understand this behavior, a dynamic three-dimensional finite-element model of the chicken middle ear was constructed. The effect of changing the flexibility of the cartilaginous extracolumella on middle-ear sound conduction was simulated from 0.125 to 8 kHz, and the influence of the outward-bulging cone shape of the eardrum was studied by altering the depth and orientation of the eardrum cone in the model. It was found that extracolumella flexibility increases the middle-ear pressure gain at low frequencies due to an enhancement of eardrum motion, but it decreases the pressure gain at high frequencies as the bony columella becomes more resistant to extracolumella movement. Similar to the inward-pointing cone shape of the mammalian eardrum, it was shown that the outward-pointing cone shape of the chicken eardrum enhances the middle-ear pressure gain compared to a flat eardrum shape. When the outward-pointing eardrum was replaced by an inward-pointing eardrum, the pressure gain decreased slightly over the entire frequency range. This decrease was assigned to an increase in bending behavior of the extracolumella and a reduction in piston-like columella motion in the model with an inward-pointing eardrum. Possibly, the single-ossicle middle ear of birds favors an outward-pointing eardrum over an inward-pointing one as it preserves a straight angle between the columella and extrastapedius and a right angle between the columella and suprastapedius, which provides the optimal transmission.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. R. Claes and Dr. J. Goyens for their help with the micro-CT scanning. We acknowledge the funding agency, the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO), for their financial support, Grant no. 11T9318N.
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Online Resource 1 Harmonic motion of the columellar apparatus with flexible extracolumella during sound-pressure stimulation of the tympanic membrane at 0.125 kHz (anteromedial view). The motion (colored) is depicted relative to the resting condition (triangulated), but the tympanic membrane, ascending ligament and infrastapedial membrane are hidden. The color scale shows root-mean-square displacements, and the depicted deformation is magnified by a factor of 500 (AVI 793 kb)
Online Resource 2 Harmonic motion of the columellar apparatus with stiff extracolumella during sound-pressure stimulation of the tympanic membrane at 0.125 kHz (anteromedial view). The motion (colored) is depicted relative to the resting condition (triangulated), but the tympanic membrane, ascending ligament and infrastapedial membrane are hidden. The color scale shows root-mean-square displacements, and the depicted deformation is magnified by a factor of 500 (AVI 710 kb)
Online Resource 3 Harmonic motion of the columellar apparatus with flexible extracolumella during sound-pressure stimulation of the tympanic membrane at 1 kHz (anteromedial view). The motion (colored) is depicted relative to the resting condition (triangulated), but the tympanic membrane, ascending ligament infrastapedial membrane are hidden. The color scale shows root-mean-square displacements, and the depicted deformation is magnified by a factor of 1000 (AVI 812 kb)
Online Resource 4 Harmonic motion of the columellar apparatus with stiff extracolumella during sound-pressure stimulation of the tympanic membrane at 1 kHz (anteromedial view). The motion (colored) is depicted relative to the resting condition (triangulated), but the tympanic membrane, ascending ligament and infrastapedial membrane are hidden. The color scale shows root-mean-square displacements, and the depicted deformation is magnified by a factor of 1000 (AVI 711 kb)
Online Resource 5 Harmonic motion of the columellar apparatus with flexible extracolumella during sound-pressure stimulation of the tympanic membrane at 8 kHz (anteromedial view). The harmonic motion (colored) is depicted relative to the resting condition (triangulated), but the tympanic membrane, ascending ligament and infrastapedial membrane are hidden. The color scale shows root-mean-square displacements, and the depicted deformation is magnified by a factor of 30,000 (AVI 916 kb)
Online Resource 6 Harmonic motion of the columellar apparatus with stiff extracolumella during sound-pressure stimulation of the tympanic membrane at 8 kHz (anteromedial view). The motion (colored) is depicted relative to the resting condition (triangulated), but the tympanic membrane, ascending ligament and infrastapedial membrane are hidden. The color scale shows root-mean-square displacements, and the depicted deformation is magnified by a factor of 30,000 (AVI 715 kb)
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Muyshondt, P.G.G., Dirckx, J.J.J. How flexibility and eardrum cone shape affect sound conduction in single-ossicle ears: a dynamic model study of the chicken middle ear. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 19, 233–249 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-019-01207-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-019-01207-4