COCHLEAR PROSTHESES

由一组临床医生提出的这一更新申请的总体目标， 基础科学家的任务是阐明电的基本机制， 刺激听觉神经，并提供合理的基础， 设计更好的人工耳蜗以减轻语言接收 严重失聪的人 在本补助期内， 心理物理学、言语感知、言语产生、诱发电位，以及 解剖（CT）数据已系统地收集了21植入 患者，其中一些人已经纵向研究超过4 年 这项临床工作和我们相关的动物研究正在开始 查明造成福利差异很大的基本因素 被剥夺者获得的。 虽然这项研究的规模很大， 互动，它被组织成5个项目，根据方法：（1） 植入式人工耳蜗言语接收的人类感知研究 主题，并将其与信息处理能力的 主题和语音处理方案。 (2)言语研究 生产，以表征发生在植入的语音变化， 主题和理解自我听力在演讲中的作用。 （三） 电诱发电位的评价，以确定其效用， 为无法提供可靠行为的患者调整处理器 反应（例如婴儿），并作为估计数量的手段， 螺旋神经节细胞群的分布。 (4)解剖学研究 使用CT扫描和组织学技术来研究 颞骨结构对于耳蜗植入和 确定植入后的电极位置。 (5)电生理 猫的实验，以描述听觉神经纤维对 脑内电刺激来描述语言 信息由现有的语音处理器编码，目的是 改进这些处理器。 这些项目与生物物理 用于有髓鞘听觉神经纤维的电刺激的模型， 将耦合到电流的电解剖模型， 耳蜗;它们提供了测试模型所需的数据， 模型提供了一个统一的理论基础，以帮助解释 的结果。

The overall goal of this renewal application by a group of clinicians and basic scientists is to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms in electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve, and to provide a rational foundation for the design of better cochlear prostheses to alleviate speech reception deficits in the profoundly deaf. During the current grant period, psychophysical, speech-perception, speech-production, evoked-potential, and anatomical (CT) data have been systematically collected for 21 implanted patients, some of whom have been studied longitudinally for more than 4 years. This clinical effort and our related animal studies are beginning to identify basic factors underlying the wide variability in benefits obtained by implantees. Although the proposed research is highly interactive, it is organized into 5 projects according to methodology: (1) Studies of human perception to characterize speech reception in implanted subjects and relate it to information processing capabilities of the subjects and to speech processing schemes. (2) Studies of speech production to characterize changes that occur in the speech of implanted subjects and to understand the role of self hearing in speech. (3) Evaluation of electrically-evoked potentials to determine their utility for adjusting processors for patients who cannot provide reliable behavioral responses (e.g. infants), and as a means of estimating the number and distribution of spiral ganglion cell populations. (4) Anatomical studies using CT scans and histological techniques to investigate the morphology of temporal bone structures important for cochlear implantation and to determine electrode locations after implantation. (5) Electrophysiological experiments in cats to describe the responses of auditory nerve fibers to intracochlear electrical stimulation in order to describe how well speech information is encoded by existing speech processors with the aim of improving those processors. These projects interact with a biophysical model for electrical stimulation of myelinated auditory nerve fibers that will be coupled to an electro-anatomical model of current flow in the cochlea; they provide the data necessary for testing the models and the models provides a unifying theoretical basis to aid in the interpretation of results.