Zwislocki’s model of the middle ear re-visited

Zwislocki’s circuit model of the middle ear [11] has been used, in original or modified form, in subsequent studies modeling the ear [4, 6]. The model includes two eardrum modes of vibration, a shunt for flexible coupling between the incus and stapes, and a single tuned oscillator for ossicular vibration. The contribution of each of these mechanisms was examined by fitting a model of the ear to acoustic input impedance data from healthy human ears. The circuit elements for a non-ossicular eardrum vibration and a flexible coupling between the incus and stapes were found to be detrimental or non-essential for the model-fit-to-data. A single mode of eardrum vibration for sound transmission to the middle ear is consistent with the eardrum acting as an impedance-matching device, with pars-tensa eardrum vibration coupled to the ossicles [1]. A single-tuned oscillator was insufficient to account for the bandwidth of the ear. The frequency response of the ear suggests multiple resonant modes of ossicular vibration.