Spatial selective infrared neural stimulation has potential to improve neural prostheses, including cochlear implants. The heating of a confined target volume depolarizes the cell membrane and results in an action potential. Tissue heating may also result in the generation of a stress relaxation wave causing mechanical stimulation of hair cells in the cochlea, creating an optoacoustic response. Data are presented that quantify the effect of an acoustical stimulus (noise masker) on the response obtained with INS in normal hearing, and chronic deaf animals. While in normal hearing animals an acoustic masker can reduce the response to INS, in chronic deaf animals this effect has not been detected. The responses to INS remain stable following the different degrees of cochlear damage.

Date Published: 20 March 2014
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 8928, Optical Techniques in Neurosurgery, Neurophotonics, and Optogenetics, 892819 (20 March 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2049323

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8928:
Optical Techniques in Neurosurgery, Neurophotonics, and Optogenetics
Henry Hirschberg M.D.; E. Duco Jansen; Samarendra K. Mohanty; Nitish V. Thakor; Qingming Luo; Steen J. Madsen, Editor(s)