MEASUREMENT OF ANISOTROPIC MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE TECTORIAL MEMBRANE

The tectorial membrane (TM) in the cochlea is an anisotropic tissue with a key role in hearing. The TM's structural and mechanical anisotropy is provided by oriented collagen bundles about 1 micron thick. Here we report the three elastic moduli that characterize the TM, as well as the novel technique used to measure the mechanical properties of an anisotropic material. We have measured mechanical anisotropy by combining Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and optical tracking of microspheres. The surface Green's tensor for an incompressible anisotropic material was then used to compute the elastic moduli from imposed forces and the resulting surface deformations. Our results suggest a critical role of TM's strong anisotropy by enhancing the cochlear amplifier.