A Computational Model of Auditory Nerve Fiber Responses to Electric-Acoustic Stimulation
* Präsentierender Autor
Zusammenfassung:Nowadays, it is often possible to preserve residual acoustic low-frequency hearing during the insertion of a cochlear implant (CI) in the same ear. Despite the benefits of the acoustic component, these CI users receiving combined electric-acoustic stimulation (EAS) also suffer from interactions between the two modalities. For instance, masking between electric and acoustic stimulation has been observed in auditory nerve fiber (ANF) spike trains in animals as well as in electrocochleography and psychophysical experiments in humans. To date, it remains unclear at which stage of the auditory pathway these masking effects arise (i.e. at the level of hair cells, the auditory nerve or more centrally).In this work we use a computational model to investigate the underlying interaction mechanisms in EAS users. Existing models simulate ANF spiking for sole acoustic or electric stimulation. We coupled a model of acoustically evoked spiking with a model of electrically induced spikes in order to simulate single-ANF responses to combined EAS. The results are largely consistent with experimental recordings from Miller et al. (2009) and Tillein et al. (2015).