Peripheral Mechanisms of Hearing consists of a series of projects that seek to establish the relationship between the sound-induced vibrations of the basilar membrane of the mammalian inner ear and their neural correlates, the trains of electrical impulses that travel along the fibers of the auditory nerve. Most of the proposed projects will be carried out in chinchillas and will study the mechanical origin of frequency-specific nonlinearities of auditory-nerve responses to sound. Basilar-membrane responses to single tones, clicks or two-tone stimuli will be recorded at either basal or apical cochlear regions by means of laser velocimetry, a method that allows detection of submicroscopic vibrations. Responses to the same stimuli will be recorded from single neurons of the auditory-nerve using microelectrodes. Other projects will determine whether the chinchilla basilar membrane responses to tones contain DC, as well as vibratory, components, and will describe the early maturation of basilar membrane vibrations in an altricial (i.e., late-maturing) rodent, the Mongolian gerbil. Results of the proposed investigations will be valuable in understanding the framework of normal mechanical-to-neural transduction in the human ear, which the ears of chinchillas and gerbils resemble. Results will also be important in specifying possible mechanical aspects of pathology in human deafness.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01DC000419-06
Application #
3216839
Study Section
Hearing Research Study Section (HAR)
Project Start
1987-07-01
Project End
1993-08-31
Budget Start
1992-09-01
Budget End
1993-08-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
1992
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
168559177
City
Minneapolis
State
MN
Country
United States
Zip Code
55455
Charaziak, Karolina K; Siegel, Jonathan H; Shera, Christopher A (2018) Spectral Ripples in Round-Window Cochlear Microphonics: Evidence for Multiple Generation Mechanisms. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 19:401-419
Temchin, Andrei N; Ruggero, Mario A (2014) Spatial irregularities of sensitivity along the organ of Corti of the cochlea. J Neurosci 34:11349-54
Recio-Spinoso, Alberto; Fan, Yun-Hui; Ruggero, Mario A (2011) Basilar-membrane responses to broadband noise modeled using linear filters with rational transfer functions. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 58:1456-65
Temchin, Andrei N; Recio-Spinoso, Alberto; Ruggero, Mario A (2011) Timing of cochlear responses inferred from frequency-threshold tuning curves of auditory-nerve fibers. Hear Res 272:178-86
Temchin, Andrei N; Ruggero, Mario A (2010) Phase-locked responses to tones of chinchilla auditory nerve fibers: implications for apical cochlear mechanics. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 11:297-318
Recio-Spinoso, Alberto; Narayan, Shyamla S; Ruggero, Mario A (2009) Basilar membrane responses to noise at a basal site of the chinchilla cochlea: quasi-linear filtering. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 10:471-84
Ruggero, Mario A; Temchin, Andrei N (2007) Similarity of traveling-wave delays in the hearing organs of humans and other tetrapods. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 8:153-66
Temchin, Andrei N; Recio-Spinoso, Alberto; van Dijk, Pim et al. (2005) Wiener kernels of chinchilla auditory-nerve fibers: verification using responses to tones, clicks, and noise and comparison with basilar-membrane vibrations. J Neurophysiol 93:3635-48
Siegel, Jonathan H; Cerka, Amanda J; Recio-Spinoso, Alberto et al. (2005) Delays of stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions and cochlear vibrations contradict the theory of coherent reflection filtering. J Acoust Soc Am 118:2434-43
Ruggero, Mario A; Temchin, Andrei N (2005) Unexceptional sharpness of frequency tuning in the human cochlea. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 102:18614-9

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