CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Laryngorhinootologie 2018; 97(S 02): S243
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1640555
Abstracts
Otologie: Otology

Interaural time difference sensitivity in a new animal model of bilateral cochlear implant users

N Roßkothen-Kuhl
1   Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, HNO-Klinik, Freiburg
,
AN Buck
2   Hearing Research Group, Department of Biomedical Sciences, City University of Ho, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
,
K Li
2   Hearing Research Group, Department of Biomedical Sciences, City University of Ho, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
,
A Prasad Mishra
2   Hearing Research Group, Department of Biomedical Sciences, City University of Ho, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
,
JW Schnupp
2   Hearing Research Group, Department of Biomedical Sciences, City University of Ho, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
› Author AffiliationsThe work leading to this publication was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007 – 2013) under REA grant agreement n° 605728 (P.R.I.M.E. – Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience).
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Sound localization is one of the major challenges for bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users. To derive maximum benefit from two CIs, further research is needed in animal models to understand how parameters such as interaural synchronization influence the binaural processing in central auditory hubs of CI patients.

We present the neonatally deafened rat as a new model to investigate binaural hearing under electrical intracochlear stimulation. Rats received bilateral CIs in young adulthood, and were either trained in a self-developed setup for interaural time difference (ITD) based sound localization tasks, or they were prepared for acute recordings of ITD tuning from neurons in their inferior colliculus (IC), a major hub for sound localization.

For both methods ITDs varied over the rat's physiological range, from 0.16 ms left ear leading to 0.16 ms right ear leading. In this manner, electrical ITD tuning curves were recorded for 898 multi-units in the IC of 4 deaf rats fitted with bilateral CIs. All units were driven by the electrical stimuli, and the majority (87.6%) of the units were significantly sensitive to ITDs and mostly tuned to contralateral or central locations. In a behavioral two-alternative forced-choice ITD discrimination task the CI-fitted rats learned quickly to localize sounds by ITD. On average their probability of a correct choice increased up to 90% per 100µs of ITD, a behavioral sensitivity similar with that seen in normally hearing rats.

We have demonstrated that deaf rats can use ITD to localize sound sources with electric auditory stimulation through bilateral CIs. Overall, our results have shown that it should in principle be possible to incorporate ITD coding into future CI designs, and that rats are a good model to pioneer this research area.



Publication History

Publication Date:
18 April 2018 (online)

© 2018. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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