The cochlear implant uses electrical stimulation to activate spiral ganglion neurons to restore hearing. Despite its efficiency, electrical stimulation activates a broad region of the cochlea, thereby reducing cochlear implant performance. Optogenetic stimulation, which uses light to stimulate neurons, has the potential for precise neural activation.
In this study, we compared the spread of activation and channel interaction arising from multi-channel electrical or optogenetic stimulation in the mouse cochlea. Our findings revealed that optogenetic stimulation resulted in a 2-fold narrower spread of activation. Also, optogenetics stimulation resulted in significantly lower channel interaction with adjacent channels and had a 13-fold less relative influence on threshold compared to simultaneous electrical stimulation (P<0.05), demonstrating the potential advantages of optogenetic stimulation in cochlear implant technology.
Cochlear implants artificially restore hearing to people with hearing loss through electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve, but hearing outcomes are limited by the broad spread of current throughout the cochlea fluids. Optogenetic stimulation can improve spatial precision within the cochlea, but cannot achieve the high stimulation rates used in contemporary cochlear implants. Hybrid (optogenetic and electrical) stimulation offers a means of achieving both high spatial precision whilst maintaining high stimulation rates. We recorded auditory nerve responses to three modes of stimulation – light/optogenetic, electrical, and hybrid – and compared the activation thresholds and temporal precision across the modalities.
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