Basilar membrane (magnified)
Lamina basilaris
Sensory (eye & ear)OrgansWhole body
- What it is
- The fibrous sheet stretched across the cochlear duct from the bony spiral lamina to the outer wall, on which the organ of Corti sits. Its radial fibres are short and stiff at the base of the cochlea and long and floppy at the apex.
- Function
- Its graded stiffness turns each sound frequency into a peak of vibration at one place along the spiral: the cochlea's frequency map.
- Size
- Real width 0.1 mm at the base to 0.5 mm at the apex; about 35 mm long.
- Clinical note
- Georg von Bekesy won the 1961 Nobel Prize for showing the travelling wave that runs along this membrane.