Abstract

The applicant intends to explore the relationships between the sound-induced vibrations of the basilar membrane and the corresponding electrical activity in inner hair cells and spike activity in the auditory nerve. Most of the specific tasks will be carried out in chinchillas and will be aimed at observing the mechanical origins of frequency-specific nonlinearities of auditory-nerve responses to sound. Instruments that allow detection of vibrations of atomic dimensions will be used to record basilar-membrane responses to various acoustic stimuli. Responses to the same stimuli will be recorded intracellularly from inner hair cells and from single auditory-nerve neurons. In a second project, the applicant intends to observe the course of maturation of basilar membrane function in a late-maturing rodent-- the Mongolian gerbil. The proposed investigations are intended to help understand the process of mechanical-to-neural transduction in the human ear (which the ears of chinchillas and gerbils resemble), which presumably will be important in specifying possible mechanical aspects of pathology in human deafness.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC000419-13
Application #
6137853
Study Section
Hearing Research Study Section (HAR)
Program Officer
Donahue, Amy
Project Start
1987-07-01
Project End
2001-12-31
Budget Start
2000-01-01
Budget End
2000-12-31
Support Year
13
Fiscal Year
2000
Total Cost
$271,289
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
Northwestern University at Chicago
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Evanston
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60201

  Publications

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

Showing the most recent 10 out of 23 publications