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Determination of optimal excitation patterns for local mechanical inner ear stimulation using a physiologically-based model

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Abstract

Within the field of hearing prosthetics it is known that patients with sufficient residual hearing benefit from the simultaneous employment of hearing aid and cochlear implant. Several attempts have been proposed to combine the sources of the corresponding acoustic and electric stimuli in a single, implantable device. However, since only little is known about the effect of also applying the acoustic stimulus locally from within the inner ear, the current state of research lacks detailed knowledge on the optimal stimulation at the corresponding bionic interface. Within this manuscript, a simple but yet physiologically-based inner ear model is presented which was designed specifically for the analysis of local acoustic or mechanical inner ear stimulation. A detailed model analysis is performed showing that it is capable of mirroring the known mechanical phenomena of this particular stimulation approach. Using the model, it is demonstrated how amplitude and phase shift values of stimuli applied from within the inner ear should be chosen for optimal inner ear stimulation.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Department of Otolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany

    Daniel Schurzig, Thomas S. Rau, Thomas Lenarz & Omid Majdani

  2. Institute of Dynamics and Vibration Research, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Appelstr. 11, 30167, Hannover, Germany

    Jörg Wallaschek

Authors
  1. Daniel Schurzig
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  2. Thomas S. Rau
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  3. Jörg Wallaschek
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  4. Thomas Lenarz
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  5. Omid Majdani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Schurzig.

Appendix

Appendix

The parameters listed in Table 2 state all values employed for the presented numerical results, i.e. the model displayed in Fig. 3b. They are based on the studies proposed in Békésy (1960) and Liu and Neely (2010), the results of which were also employed within the precursor model described in Saremi and Stenfelt (2013) (see also Fig. 3a).

Table 2 Model parameters employed within the presented studies
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Schurzig, D., Rau, T.S., Wallaschek, J. et al. Determination of optimal excitation patterns for local mechanical inner ear stimulation using a physiologically-based model. Biomed Microdevices 18, 36 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-016-0061-3

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