Opto-Electrical Cochlear Implants

项目摘要/摘要 我们的目标是开发一种使用光子刺激幸存听觉的光学人工耳蜗(OCI) 神经元严重到深度失聪。光刺激的好处是它的空间选择性和 有可能创建更多独立的通道来编码声学信息并增强 CI用户在具有挑战性的收听环境中的表现，并提高音乐鉴赏力。在以前的 实验确定了红外神经刺激(INS)在不同动物中的参数空间 模特，包括猫。为了将这种方法转化为一种临床工具，一种光电人工耳蜗，我们 必须将为猫定义的参数空间转换为人类更大的耳蜗。在准备过程中 我们已经与食品和药物管理局(FDA)沟通并提交了一份Q- 提交第一套拟议测试的研究风险评估。这项研究的目的是 表明在人类中使用光纤、光刺激和组合光电刺激是可能的 纤维束和光电混合型人工耳蜗术。此外，测试还将验证INS是 辐射波长是可能的，这是商业上用于通信的，并且 光源和光波导技术已经非常小型化和成熟。最重要的是，我们将使用 前向掩蔽方法验证光刺激在空间上比电刺激更具选择性的观点 通过比较掩蔽刺激降低探头响应幅度的能力进行的刺激 刺激。测试对象将是患有颅底大肿瘤的患者，他们需要经迷路手术。 开颅手术切除肿瘤。在这种手术入路中，耳蜗和前庭系统将受到损害。 而且手术后病人会失聪。这一手术提供了一个独特的机会来测试光学 在肿瘤切除过程中去除耳蜗组织之前对其进行的刺激。重要数据可以是 这将推动我们的植入型光电人工耳蜗系统的发展 行业合作者。每个患者的测量时间不超过30分钟，之后所有 设备将从手术场中移除，肿瘤切除手术将继续进行。

Project Summary / Abstract Our goal is to develop an optical cochlear implant (oCI) that uses photons to stimulate surviving auditory neurons in severely-to-profoundly deaf. The benefit of optical stimulation is its spatial selectivity with the potential to create significantly more independent channels to encode acoustic information and to enhance the CI users’ performance in challenging listening environments and to improve music appreciation. In previous experiments we have defined the parameter space for infrared neural stimulation (INS) in diverse animal models, including the cat. To translate the method into a clinical tool, an opto-electrical cochlear implant, we have to convert the parameter space defined for the cats to the larger cochlea of the humans. In preparation of the study we have communicated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and have submitted a Q- submission for a study risk assessment for the first set of the proposed tests. The purpose of this study is to show that optical and combined opto-electrical stimulation is possible in humans using optical fibers, optical fiber bundles, and a hybrid opto-electrical cochlear implant. Furthermore, the tests will also validate that INS is possible at radiation wavelengths, which are used commercially in communication and for which the technology of optical sources and waveguides is well miniaturized and matured. Most importantly, we will use a forward masking method to validate the view that optical stimulation is spatially more selective than electrical stimulation by comparing the ability of a masking stimulus to reduce the response amplitude of a probe stimulus. Test subjects will be patients with large tumors of the skull base, who require a translabyrinthine craniotomy for tumor removal. For this surgical approach the cochlea and vestibular system will be damaged and the patients will be deaf after surgery. This surgery provides an unique opportunity to test optical stimulation in the human cochlea before it is removed during the tumor resection. Important data can be gathered, which will drive the development of an implantable opto-electrical cochlear implant system by our industrial collaborators. The measurements will take no longer than 30 minutes per patient, after which all the equipment will be removed from the surgical filed and the tumor resection surgery continues.