title: Determination of optimal excitation patterns for local mechanical inner ear stimulation using a physiologically-based model.
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.
authors.affiliation: Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Department of Otolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany. schurzig.daniel@mh-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schurzig
authors.affiliation: Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Department of Otolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Rau
authors.affiliation: Institute of Dynamics and Vibration Research, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Appelstr. 11, 30167, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wallaschek
authors.affiliation: Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Department of Otolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lenarz
authors.affiliation: Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, Department of Otolaryngology, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Majdani
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003051:Cochlea / Q000502:physiology*; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008954:Models, Biological; D058117:Neural Prostheses
keywords: Active cochlear mechanism; Cochlea modeling; EAS; Intracochlear stimulation