A systematic and detailed study of the longitudinal coupling exhibited by the basilar membrane (BM) was performed in the excised gerbil cochlea. Contrary to the notion that the adjacent regions of the BM are decoupled from each other, the data indicate that: (a) the BM exhibits longitudinal coupling; (b) the length of the coupled region increases from base to apex of the cochlea; and (c) the cells of the organ of Corti (OC) increase the overall coupling exhibited by the BM. Modeling results show that, at a given location, longitudinal coupling increases the effective stiffness of the OC near the characteristic frequency. Therefore, the effect of longitudinal coupling cannot be neglected in the region of the peak of the traveling wave.