  The transduction process that occurs in the inner ear of the auditory system
is a complex mechanism which requires a non-linear dynamical description. In
addition to this, the stochastic phenomena that naturally arise in the inner
ear during the transduction of an external sound into an electro-chemical
signal must also be taken into account. The presence of noise is usually
undesirable, but in non-linear systems a moderate amount of noise can improve
the system's performance and increase the signal-to-noise ratio. The phenomenon
of stochastic resonance combines randomness with non-linearity and is a natural
candidate to explain at least part of the hearing process which is observed in
the inner ear. In this work, we present a toy model of the auditory system
which shows how stochastic resonance can be instrumental to sound perception,
and suggests an explanation of the frequency dependence of the hearing
threshold.
