Physical Nature of Certain of the Vibrating Elements of the Internal Ear

THE sensation resulting in the human subject from a change of phase of (180°) occurring in the course of a continuous musical tone has been the subject of a number of earlier publications1. Under certain conditions, the sensation has been found to resemble the beat produced by two pure tones slightly out of unison, and has been described as a ” phase-change beat”2. As stated by Hartridge1, it is demanded by the Helmholtz resonance theory that the physiological event which corresponds to such a phase-change beat must be a transient arrest of the resonant elements of the internal ear brought about by the opposition of the impressed forces following the change of phase to the after-swings enforced by resonance.