Tonotopic responses in the inferior colliculus following electrical stimulation of the dorsal cochlear nucleus of guinea pigs.

摘要

Despite advances in speech-processing strategies and increased capacity of implantable electrodes, speech perception afforded by central auditory prostheses varies significantly across implantees.1 It has been suggested that damage to the cochlear nucleus or limited access to tonotopic gradients in an implanted auditory structure contributes to the variability. These problems prompt the need to further pursue improved efficacy of auditory brain stem implants (ABI).We investigated neural activation in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (CIC) following multichannel electrical stimulation of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN). The rationale for choosing the DCN as a target of stimulation included the fact that the tonotopicity of the DCN is best defined among the three subdivisions of the cochlear nuclear complex, the DCN is involved in sound localization and discrimination in noise, and speech perception can be achieved via stimulation of the DCN. We hypothesized that electrical stimulation ofmultiple sites in the DCN would elicit neural activity that is tonotopically organized in the CIC.