Using Cochlear Microphonic Potentials to Localize Peripheral Hearing Loss

Interplay between traveling wave propagation and amplification at the apex of the mouse cochlea

Sounds entering the mammalian ear produce waves that travel from the base to the apex of the cochlea. An electromechanical active process amplifies traveling wave motions and enables sound processing over a broad range of frequencies and intensities. The cochlear amplifier requires combining the global traveling wave with the local cellular processes that change along the length of the cochlea given the gradual changes in hair cell and supporting cell anatomy and physiology. Thus, we measured basilar membrane (BM) traveling waves in vivo along the apical turn of the mouse cochlea using volumetric optical coherence tomography and vibrometry. We found that there was a gradual reduction in key features of the active process toward the apex. For example, the gain decreased from 23 to 19 dB and tuning sharpness decreased from 2.5 to 1.4. Furthermore, we measured the frequency and intensity dependence of traveling wave properties. The phase velocity was larger than the group velocity, and both quantities gradually decrease from the base to the apex denoting a strong dispersion characteristic near the helicotrema. Moreover, we found that the spatial wavelength along the BM was highly level dependent in vivo, such that increasing the sound intensity from 30 to 90 dB sound pressure level increased the wavelength from 504 to 874 μm, a factor of 1.73. We hypothesize that this wavelength variation with sound intensity gives rise to an increase of the fluid-loaded mass on the BM and tunes its local resonance frequency. Together, these data demonstrate a strong interplay between the traveling wave propagation and amplification along the length of the cochlea.

Using electrocochleography to detect sensory and neural damages in a gerbil model

Hearing is one of the five sensory organs that allows us to interact with society and our environment. However, one in eight Americans suffers from sensorineural hearing loss that is great enough to adversely impact their daily life. There is an urgent need to identify what part/degree of the auditory pathway (sensory or neural) is compromised so that appropriate treatment/intervention can be implemented. Single- or two-tone evoked potentials, the electrocochleography (eCochG), were measured along the auditory pathway, i.e., at the round window and remotely at the vertex, with simultaneous recordings of ear canal distortion product otoacoustic emissions. Sensory (cochlear) and neural components in the (remote-) eCochG responses showed distinct level- and frequency-dependent features allowing to be differentiated from each other. Specifically, the distortion products in the (remote-)eCochGs can precisely localize the sensory damage showing that they are effective to determine the sensory or neural damage along the auditory pathway.

Model of cochlear microphonic explores the tuning and magnitude of hair cell transduction current

The mammalian cochlea relies on the active forcing of sensory outer hair cells (OHCs) to amplify traveling wave responses along the basilar membrane. These forces are the result of electromotility, wherein current through the OHCs leads to conformational changes in the cells that provide stresses on surrounding structures. OHC transducer current can be detected via the voltage in the scala tympani (the cochlear microphonic, CM), and the CM can be used as an indicator of healthy cochlear operation. The CM represents a summation of OHC currents (the inner hair cell contribution is known to be small) and to use CM to probe the properties of OHC transduction requires a model that simulates that summation. We developed a finite element model for that purpose. The pattern of current generators (the model input) was initially based on basilar membrane displacement, with the current size based on in vitro data. The model was able to reproduce the amplitude of experimental CM results reasonably well when the input tuning was enhanced slightly (peak increased by ∼6 dB), which can be regarded as additional hair bundle tuning, and with a current/input value of 200-260 pA/nm, which is ∼4 times greater than the largest in vitro measures.

Simulating intracochlear electrocochleography with a combined model of acoustic hearing and electric current spread in the cochlea

Intracochlear electrocochleography (ECochG) is a potential tool for the assessment of residual hearing in cochlear implant users during implantation and acoustical tuning postoperatively. It is, however, unclear how these ECochG recordings from different locations in the cochlea depend on the stimulus parameters, cochlear morphology, implant design, or hair cell degeneration. In this paper, a model is presented that simulates intracochlear ECochG recordings by combining two existing models, namely a peripheral one that simulates hair cell activation and a three-dimensional (3D) volume-conduction model of the current spread in the cochlea. The outcomes were compared to actual ECochG recordings from subjects with a cochlear implant (CI). The 3D volume conduction simulations showed that the intracochlear ECochG is a local measure of activation. Simulations showed that increasing stimulus frequency resulted in a basal shift of the peak cochlear microphonic (CM) amplitude. Increasing the stimulus level resulted in wider tuning curves as recorded along the array. Simulations with hair cell degeneration resulted in ECochG responses that resembled the recordings from the two subjects in terms of CM onset responses, higher harmonics, and the width of the tuning curve. It was concluded that the model reproduced the patterns seen in intracochlear hair cell responses recorded from CI-subjects.

An analytic approach to identifying the sources of the low-frequency round window cochlear response

The cochlear microphonic, traditionally thought of as an indication of electrical current flow through hair cells, in conjunction with suppressing high-pass noise or tones, is a promising method of assessing the health of outer hair cells at specific locations along the cochlear partition. We propose that the electrical potential recorded from the round window in gerbils in response to low-frequency tones, which we call cochlear response (CR), contains significant responses from multiple cellular sources, which may expand its diagnostic purview. In this study, CR is measured in the gerbil and modeled to identify its contributing sources. CR was recorded via an electrode placed in the round window niche of sixteen Mongolian gerbils and elicited with a 45 Hz tone burst embedded in 18 high-pass filtered noise conditions to target responses from increasing regions along the cochlear partition. Possible sources were modeled using previously-published hair cell and auditory nerve response data, and then weighted and combined using linear regression to produce a model response that fits closely to the mean CR waveform. The significant contributing sources identified by the model are outer hair cells, inner hair cells, and the auditory nerve. We conclude that the low-frequency CR contains contributions from several cellular sources.

Spectral Ripples in Round-Window Cochlear Microphonics: Evidence for Multiple Generation Mechanisms

The cochlear microphonic (CM) results from the vector sum of outer hair cell transduction currents excited by a stimulus. The classical theory of CM generation-that the response measured at the round window is dominated by cellular sources located within the tail region of the basilar membrane (BM) excitation pattern-predicts that CM amplitude and phase vary little with stimulus frequency. Contrary to expectations, CM amplitude and phase-gradient delay measured in response to low-level tones in chinchillas demonstrate a striking, quasiperiodic pattern of spectral ripples, even at frequencies > 5 kHz, where interference with neurophonic potentials is unlikely. The spectral ripples were reduced in the presence of a moderate-level saturating tone at a nearby frequency. When converted to the time domain, only the delayed CM energy was diminished in the presence of the saturator. We hypothesize that the ripples represent an interference pattern produced by CM components with different phase gradients: an early-latency component originating within the tail region of the BM excitation and two delayed components that depend on active cochlear processing near the peak region of the traveling wave. Using time windowing, we show that the early, middle, and late components have delays corresponding to estimated middle-ear transmission, cochlear forward delays, and cochlear round-trip delays, respectively. By extending the classical model of CM generation to include mechanical and electrical irregularities, we propose that middle components are generated through a mechanism of "coherent summation" analogous to the production of reflection-source otoacoustic emissions (OAEs), while the late components arise through a process of internal cochlear reflection related to the generation of stimulus-frequency OAEs. Although early-latency components from the passive tail region typically dominate the round-window CM, at low stimulus levels, substantial contributions from components shaped by active cochlear processing provide a new avenue for improving CM measurements as assays of cochlear health.