Functionally Important Features of the Electrically Stimulated Cochlea

项目摘要/摘要 我们研究的目标是：(1)确定耳蜗人耳蜗区附近的状况 人工耳蜗电极影响特定的电生理心理和电生理测量 听力；(2)确定这些特定措施与语音识别与耳蜗的关系 假体；以及(3)利用这些信息来增加人工耳蜗术患者从 他们的假肢。来自这些研究的数据可以用于两种方式来改进语音识别 人工耳蜗使用者。首先，基于将病理模式与功能相关的动物工作 措施，我们将为听力专家提供简单的、临床适用的措施，他们可以用来评估 患者耳蜗内的单个刺激部位，并指导选择最佳刺激部位 个别病人的语音处理器图。其次，这些数据可以帮助研究科学家和外科医生 确定通过组织保存和组织修复来改善种植体功能的最佳解剖靶点 使受损的耳蜗能更好地接受假体刺激的工程策略。我们的 方法包括豚鼠的心理物理和电生理实验，以及 人类的心理物理、电生理和语音识别研究。我们将衡量 心理物理表现，例如脉冲串或相位持续时间的知觉积分；以及 电生理表现，如诱发神经反应的增长速度 刺激水平。这些测量将在豚鼠和人类的个体刺激点进行。 在豚鼠身上，我们将确定听力受损耳蜗中的特定解剖特征，这些特征是 与这些指标相关。在人类身上，我们将用以下方法确定这些相同指标的相关性 在安静和嘈杂背景下的语音识别。然后我们将在人类身上使用这些测量方法来选择 包括在个别受试者的语音处理器图中的最佳刺激点。这种方法是 我们之前的研究表明，受试者使用处理器图通常表现得更好， 包括刺激部位的子集，根据适当的功能措施仔细选择，而不是它们 使用一张使用所有可用站点的地图。这份申请中提出的工作将深化我们的 了解不同用户之间语音识别性能差异的潜在机制 并作为建立和测试生物和临床程序的指南，将 改善个别患者的表现。

Project Summary/Abstract The objectives of our research are (1) to determine how conditions in the cochlea near the individual cochlear-implant electrodes affect specific psychophysical and electrophysiological measures of electrical hearing; (2) to determine the relationships of these specific measures to speech recognition with the cochlear prosthesis; and (3) to use this information to increase the benefit that cochlear implant patients receive from their prostheses. The data from these studies can be used in two ways to improve speech recognition in cochlear implant users. First, based on animal work that will correlate the pattern of pathology with functional measures, we will provide audiologists with simple, clinically-applicable measures they can use to assess individual stimulation sites in a patient's cochlea and guide selection of the best stimulation sites for an individual patient's speech processor MAP. Second, the data can help research scientists and surgeons determine the best anatomical targets for improving implant function through tissue-preservation and tissue- engineering strategies that make the impaired cochlea a better recipient of prosthetic stimulation. Our approach involves psychophysical and electrophysiological experiments in guinea pigs as well as psychophysical, electrophysiological and speech recognition studies in humans. We will measure psychophysical performance, such as perceptual integration of pulse trains or phase duration, and electrophysiological performance such as the rate at which evoked neural responses grow as a function of stimulus level. These measurements will be made at individual stimulation sites in guinea pigs and humans. In guinea pigs, we will determine the specific anatomical features in the hearing-impaired cochlea that are correlated with these measures. In humans we will determine the correlation of these same measures with speech recognition in quiet and in noisy backgrounds. We will then use these measures in humans to select the best stimulation sites to include in individual subjects' speech processor MAPs. This approach is supported by our previous studies showing that subjects usually perform better using a processor MAP that includes a subset of stimulation sites, carefully selected based on appropriate functional measures, than they do with a MAP that uses all available sites. The work proposed in this application will deepen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying variation in speech recognition performance across users of cochlear implants and serve as a guide for establishing and testing biological and clinical procedures that will improve performance in individual patients.