Please Scroll down for Article International Journal of Audiology towards Understanding the Specifics of Cochlear Hearing Loss: a Modelling Approach

It is well known that two patients suffering from a sensorineural hearing loss with similar audiograms can benefit significantly differently from amplified hearing even if the same settings of the hearing aids are used. The origin of this problem is complex but one part can be caused by the diagnosis itself; all inner-ear hearing losses are assumed similar. Such hypothesis is a simplification that probably leads to suboptimal hearing-aid fitting. For a better understanding of the signal degeneration caused by a cochlear lesion a model layout of the signal transmission in the peripheral hearing organ is presented. This model differentiates between processes in the inner ear caused by the outer hair cells, the inner hair cells, and the endocochlear potential driving the system. The model is intended to predict alteration of the signal caused by different types of cochlear lesions. Ultimately, the model may lead to improved hearing aids and fittings.

[1]  D. Mills.  Determining the Cause of Hearing Loss: Differential Diagnosis Using a Comparison of Audiometric and Otoacoustic Emission Responses , 2006, Ear and hearing.

[2]  E. Shaw.  Transformation of sound pressure level from the free field to the eardrum in the horizontal plane. , 1974, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[3]  L. Hunter,et al.  Effects of Otitis Media on Extended High-Frequency Hearing in Children , 1993, The Annals of otology, rhinology, and laryngology.

[4]  A. Oxenham,et al.  Basilar-membrane nonlinearity estimated by pulsation threshold. , 2000, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[5]  Brian R Glasberg,et al.  Derivation of auditory filter shapes from notched-noise data , 1990, Hearing Research.

[6]  F. Wightman,et al.  A model of head-related transfer functions based on principal components analysis and minimum-phase reconstruction. , 1992, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[7]  Murray B. Sachs,et al.  Biological Basis of Hearing-Aid Design , 2002, Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

[8]  T. Fukazawa.  A model of cochlear micromechanics , 1997, Hearing Research.

[9]  Sunil Puria,et al.  Middle-ear circuit model parameters based on a population of human ears. , 2008, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[10]  Stefan Stenfelt,et al.  Basilar membrane and osseous spiral lamina motion in human cadavers with air and bone conduction stimuli , 2003, Hearing Research.

[11]  D A Nelson,et al.  A new procedure for measuring peripheral compression in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. , 2001, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[12]  G Keidser,et al.  NAL-NL1 procedure for fitting nonlinear hearing aids: characteristics and comparisons with other procedures. , 2001, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[13]  M. Sachs,et al.  An auditory-periphery model of the effects of acoustic trauma on auditory nerve responses. , 2003, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[14]  D. Yan,et al.  Ageing and hearing loss , 2007, The Journal of pathology.

[15]  P Dallos,et al.  The dynamic range of inner hair cell and organ of Corti responses. , 2000, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[16]  H Müsch,et al.  On loudness at threshold. , 1998, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[17]  B Kollmeier,et al.  Evidence for the distortion product frequency place as a source of distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) fine structure in humans. I. Fine structure and higher-order DPOAE as a function of the frequency ratio f2/f1. , 1999, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[18]  Peter Dallos,et al.  Outer hair cell electromotility: The sensitivity and vulnerability of the DC component , 1991, Hearing Research.

[19]  R. Salvi,et al.  A review of the effects of selective inner hair cell lesions on distortion product otoacoustic emissions, cochlear function and auditory evoked potentials. , 2000, Noise & health.

[20]  R. Salvi,et al.  Are inner or outer hair cells the source of summating potentials recorded from the round window? , 1998, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[21]  P. Woodland,et al.  A computational model of the auditory periphery for speech and hearing research. II. Descending paths. , 1994, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[22]  R. A. Schmiedt,et al.  Metabolic Presbycusis: Differential Changes in Auditory Brainstem and Otoacoustic Emission Responses with Chronic Furosemide Application in the Gerbil , 2004, Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology.

[23]  S. Neely,et al.  Distortion product otoacoustic emissions: cochlear-source contributions and clinical test performance. , 2007, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[24]  Charles R. Steele,et al.  A three-dimensional nonlinear active cochlear model analyzed by the WKB-numeric method , 2002, Hearing Research.

[25]  P Dallos,et al.  Stereocilia displacement induced somatic motility of cochlear outer hair cells. , 1993, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[26]  N. Cooper,et al.  BASELINE POSITION SHIFTS AND MECHANICAL COMPRESSION IN THE APICAL TURNS OF THE COCHLEA , 2003 .

[27]  Muhammad S A Zilany,et al.  Modeling auditory-nerve responses for high sound pressure levels in the normal and impaired auditory periphery. , 2006, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[28]  G. W. Harding,et al.  DPOAE level shifts and ABR threshold shifts compared to detailed analysis of histopathological damage from noise , 2002, Hearing Research.

[29]  Paul Boege,et al.  Pure-tone threshold estimation from extrapolated distortion product otoacoustic emission I/O-functions in normal and cochlear hearing loss ears. , 2002, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[30]  R Meddis,et al.  Simulation of auditory-neural transduction: further studies. , 1988, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[31]  H. Dillon,et al.  The National Acoustic Laboratories' (NAL) New Procedure for Selecting the Gain and Frequency Response of a Hearing Aid , 1986, Ear and hearing.

[32]  D J Van Tasell.  Hearing loss, speech, and hearing aids. , 1993, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[33]  C Giguère,et al.  A computational model of the auditory periphery for speech and hearing research. I. Ascending path. , 1994, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[34]  G. Van Camp,et al.  The Complexity of Age-Related Hearing Impairment: Contributing Environmental and Genetic Factors , 2007, Audiology and Neurotology.

[35]  L. Robles,et al.  Basilar-membrane responses to tones at the base of the chinchilla cochlea. , 1997, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[36]  Torsten Dau,et al.  Modeling temporal and compressive properties of the normal and impaired auditory system , 2001, Hearing Research.

[37]  Ewen MacDonald,et al.  Temporal jitter disrupts speech intelligibility: A simulation of auditory aging , 2007, Hearing Research.

[38]  L. Robles,et al.  Mechanics of the mammalian cochlea. , 2001, Physiological reviews.

[39]  E. Boer.  Classical and non-classical models of the cochlea. , 1997, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[40]  Robert Patuzzi,et al.  Cochlear Micromechanics and Macromechanics , 1996 .

[41]  Stefan Stenfelt,et al.  Bone-Conducted Sound: Physiological and Clinical Aspects , 2005, Otology & neurotology : official publication of the American Otological Society, American Neurotology Society [and] European Academy of Otology and Neurotology.

[42]  Sheila Moodie,et al.  Clinical Protocols for Hearing Instrument Fitting in the Desired Sensation Level Method , 2005, Trends in amplification.

[43]  C. Daniel Geisler,et al.  A cochlear model using feed-forward outer-hair-cell forces , 1995, Hearing Research.

[44]  Leslie M. Collins,et al.  A theoretical analysis of normal- and impaired-hearing intensity discrimination , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing.

[45]  Emery M Ku,et al.  A state space model for cochlear mechanics. , 2007, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[46]  L. Carney,et al.  A model for the responses of low-frequency auditory-nerve fibers in cat. , 1993, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[47]  M. Liberman,et al.  Single-neuron labeling and chronic cochlear pathology. III. Stereocilia damage and alterations of threshold tuning curves , 1984, Hearing Research.

[48]  Stefan Stenfelt,et al.  Three-Dimensional Stapes Footplate Motion in Human Temporal Bones , 2003, Audiology and Neurotology.

[49]  R. Salvi,et al.  Selective inner hair cell loss does not alter distortion product otoacoustic emissions , 1996, Hearing Research.

[50]  R. A. Schmiedt,et al.  Effects of Furosemide Applied Chronically to the Round Window: A Model of Metabolic Presbyacusis , 2002, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[51]  Richard F. Lyon,et al.  A computational model of filtering, detection, and compression in the cochlea , 1982, ICASSP.

[52]  R. Hinchcliffe.  The threshold of hearing , 2002 .

[53]  J. Santos-Sacchi,et al.  On the frequency limit and phase of outer hair cell motility: effects of the membrane filter , 1992, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[54]  P. A. Dorn,et al.  Cochlear compression estimates from measurements of distortion-product otoacoustic emissions. , 2003, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[55]  Executive Officer,et al.  National Acoustic Laboratories , 2005 .

[56]  R. Salvi,et al.  Effect of inner and outer hair cell lesions on electrically evoked otoacoustic emissions , 2001, Hearing Research.

[57]  Ray Meddis,et al.  A nonlinear filter-bank model of the guinea-pig cochlear nerve: rate responses. , 2003, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[58]  Stefan Stenfelt,et al.  Fluid volume displacement at the oval and round windows with air and bone conduction stimulation. , 2004, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[59]  E. Lopez-Poveda,et al.  A human nonlinear cochlear filterbank. , 2001, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[60]  William F. Sewell,et al.  Furosemide selectively reduces one component in rate-level functions from auditory-nerve fibers , 1984, Hearing Research.

[61]  Sheila Moodie,et al.  The Desired Sensation Level Multistage Input/Output Algorithm , 2005, Trends in amplification.

[62]  Ray Meddis,et al.  Auditory-nerve first-spike latency and auditory absolute threshold: a computer model. , 2006, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[63]  H. Schuknecht,et al.  Cochlear Pathology in Presbycusis , 1993, The Annals of otology, rhinology, and laryngology.

[64]  Brent Edwards,et al.  The Future of Hearing Aid Technology , 2007, Trends in amplification.

[65]  Sunil Puria,et al.  Human middle-ear sound transfer function and cochlear input impedance , 2001, Hearing Research.