COCHLEAR MECHANICS, WAVE PROPAGATION, AND COMPRESSION

耳蜗力学、波传播和压缩

• 批准号: 7258549
• 负责人: Stephen T Neely
• 金额: $ 21.79万
• 依托单位: FATHER FLANAGAN'S BOYS' HOME
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-04-01 至 2012-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7258549
• 关键词: COCHLEAR; MECHANICS; WAVE; PROPAGATION; COMPRESSION

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research program focuses on theoretical and empirical studies that address current issues in cochlear mechanics relevant to noninvasive evaluation of cochlear function. The major objectives of these studies are to understand cochlear-wave propagation and to characterize cochlear compression. These objectives are approached through six specific aims. The first three aims focus on aspects of cochlear-wave propagation through modeling efforts directed at the following theoretical issues: (1) appropriate characterization of cochlear-amplifier gain; (2) a more complete understanding of distortion-product retrograde wave propagation; and (3) understanding the mechanisms that underlie notches in basilar-membrane measurements. The next three aims characterize cochlear compression growth through a combination of empirical studies involving human subjects and theoretical work involving models of cochlear mechanics. Specifically, these three studies are designed to increase our understanding of the relation between: (4) compression growth rate (CGR) and the slope of forward-masking psychometric functions; (5) CGR and suppression growth rate; and (6) CGR and cochlear reflectance. The modeling work will facilitate interpretation of the measurements and provide a deeper understanding of cochlear wave-propagation, cochlear compression, and negative damping regions. Reliable estimation of CGR is clinically significant for the remediation of hearing loss because its deviation from normal provides a precise estimate of the amount of compression that an external hearing aid needs to provide. The goal of the proposed research is the development of a computational model of cochlear mechanics that will facilitate the interpretation of noninvasive measures of peripheral auditory status in humans. This work is relevant to public-health because people with hearing loss not only have problems hearing soft sounds, they also experience sounds growing louder too quickly. Understanding how the sense organ of hearing (the cochlea) influences the growth of loudness should provide useful information for the design of hearing aids tailored to individual needs.

描述（由申请人提供）：该研究计划侧重于理论和实证研究，解决当前与耳蜗功能无创评估相关的耳蜗力学问题。这些研究的主要目的是了解耳蜗波的传播和表征耳蜗压缩。这些目标通过六个具体目标实现。前三个目标通过针对以下理论问题的建模工作关注耳蜗波传播的各个方面：（1）耳蜗放大器增益的适当表征;（2）更完整地理解畸变产物逆行波传播;（3）理解基底膜测量中的凹口机制。接下来的三个目标通过将涉及人类受试者的经验研究和涉及耳蜗力学模型的理论工作相结合来表征耳蜗压缩增长。具体而言，这三项研究旨在增加我们对以下关系的理解：（4）压缩增长率（CGR）和前向掩蔽心理测量函数的斜率;（5）CGR和抑制增长率;以及（6）CGR和耳蜗反射率。建模工作将有助于解释的测量，并提供耳蜗波传播，耳蜗压缩和负阻尼区的更深入的了解。CGR的可靠估计对于听力损失的补救具有临床意义，因为其与正常的偏差提供了对外部助听器需要提供的压缩量的精确估计。拟议的研究的目标是开发一个计算模型的耳蜗力学，这将有助于解释非侵入性措施的外周听觉状态在人类。这项工作与公共卫生有关，因为听力损失的人不仅听不到柔和的声音，而且声音变大得太快。了解听觉器官（耳蜗）如何影响响度的增长，应该为设计适合个人需求的助听器提供有用的信息。