A Functioning Multichannel Auditory Nerve Stimulator<i>A Preliminary Report on Two Human Volunteers</i>

Simmons, F. Blair; Mathews, Robert G.; Walker, Martin G.; White, Robert L.

doi:10.3109/00016487909126403

Cited by 46 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In pioneering experiments by Simmons and colleagues, bundles of 4 or 6 75-lm-diameter wires were inserted into the auditory nerves of human volunteers using a transcochlear approach (Simmons, 1966;Simmons et al, 1965Simmons et al, , 1979. Those subjects could distinguish among electrodes and could discriminate current levels and rates of pulsatile stimulation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraneural stimulation for auditory prosthesis: Modiolar trunk and intracranial stimulation sites

Middlebrooks

Snyder

2008

Hearing Research

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraneural stimulation for auditory prosthesis: Modiolar trunk and intracranial stimulation sites

Middlebrooks

Snyder

2008

Hearing Research

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“…Perceptual effects of intraneural stimulation were evaluated in a small number of human volunteers in pioneering studies by Simmons and colleagues (Simmons 1966;Simmons et al 1979;Simmons 1983). Those experiments used stimulating arrays consisting of six stainless steel or four platinumiridium wires, 75 mm in diameter.…”

Section: Previous Studies Of Intraneural Stimulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory Prosthesis with a Penetrating Nerve Array

Middlebrooks

Snyder

2007

JARO

137

163

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Contemporary auditory prostheses (Bcochlear implants^) employ arrays of stimulating electrodes implanted in the scala tympani of the cochlea. Such arrays have been implanted in some 100,000 profoundly or severely deaf people worldwide and arguably are the most successful of present-day neural prostheses. Nevertheless, most implant users show poor understanding of speech in noisy backgrounds, poor pitch recognition, and poor spatial hearing, even when using bilateral implants. Many of these limitations can be attributed to the remote location of stimulating electrodes relative to excitable cochlear neural elements. That is, a scala tympani electrode array lies within a bony compartment filled with electrically conductive fluid. Moreover, scala tympani arrays typically do not extend to the apical turn of the cochlea in which low frequencies are represented. In the present study, we have tested in an animal model an alternative to the conventional cochlear implant: a multielectrode array implanted directly into the auditory nerve. We monitored the specificity of stimulation of the auditory pathway by recording extracellular unit activity at 32 sites along the tonotopic axis of the inferior colliculus. The results demonstrate the activation of specific auditory nerve populations throughout essentially the entire frequency range that is represented by characteristic frequencies in the inferior colliculus. Compared to conventional scala tympani stimulation, thresholds for neural excitation are as much as 50-fold lower and interference between electrodes stimulated simultaneously is markedly reduced. The results suggest that if an intraneural stimulating array were incorporated into an auditory prosthesis system for humans, it could offer substantial improvement in hearing replacement compared to contemporary cochlear implants.

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“…All alternative routes to the auditory nerve entail the destruction of cochlear structures, a high incidence of cerebrospinal fluid leakage or craniotomy-related risks [Assenova et al, 2007;Badi et al, 2002;Middlebrooks and Snyder, 2008;Miller and Hillman, 2006;Simmons et al, 1965Simmons et al, , 1979. Comparatively, our transmodiolar approach through the middle ear cavities appears to be less invasive with a higher preservation of the anatomical structures with no cerebrospinal fluid leakage or infection in our series.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…The animal model generally used for the implantation of auditory nerve is the cat since its cochlear dimensions are close to those in humans [Badi et al, 2013;Hillman et al, 2003;Simmons et al, 1979]. This characteristic facilitates the surgical procedure and the evaluation of feasibility in humans.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implantation of the Auditory Nerve via the Middle Ear Cavity in Rats with Partial Hearing Preservation

Guigou¹,

Leterme²,

Pasquis³

et al. 2016

Audiol Neurotol

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the residual hearing function and cochlear morphology after auditory nerve implantation via middle ear spaces in rats. A titanium rod (1.5 mm long and 0.3 mm thick) coated with Parylene was inserted in the cochlear apex in the direction of the modiolus in 9 Wistar rats. Auditory brainstem-evoked responses to tone bursts at 2, 8, 12 and 32 kHz were recorded before surgery and on postoperative days 0, 2, 15 and 30. Eight cochleas were examined microscopically. The rod was inside the modiolus in 4, and partly or totally outside the modiolus in 4 animals. Residual hearing was present in all cases. The average threshold shift in cochleas with modiolar implant was 39 ± 11.2, 54 ± 9.7, 48 ± 20.3 and 43 ± 21.3 dB SPL on postoperative days 0, 2, 15 and 30, respectively. The transmodiolar approach allows a minimally invasive cochlear implantation and a partial hearing preservation.

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A Functioning Multichannel Auditory Nerve StimulatorA Preliminary Report on Two Human Volunteers

Cited by 46 publications

References 5 publications

Intraneural stimulation for auditory prosthesis: Modiolar trunk and intracranial stimulation sites

Intraneural stimulation for auditory prosthesis: Modiolar trunk and intracranial stimulation sites

Auditory Prosthesis with a Penetrating Nerve Array

Implantation of the Auditory Nerve via the Middle Ear Cavity in Rats with Partial Hearing Preservation

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