Graeme Clark Collection

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A comparison of burst and amplitude modulated electrical stimulation of the cochlear

Lithgow, Brian J. ( 1992)

On average, the maximum firing rates of cells in the inferior colliculus, when stimulated with either bursts or ramps (amplitude modulated bursts) of biphasic pulsatile electrical stimuli, increased as the pulse rate was increased from 125 to 4000 pulses per second (pps). The fact that this firing rate has increased, on average, up to 4000 pps is evidence that a mechanism for high pulse rate discriminability exists. This firing rate increase was not on a 1:1 basis with the stimulus, but rather a time-averaged firing rate determination. Ramp stimuli generate a wider dynamic range of firing rates than those of burst stimuli, suggesting the potential for a higher rate of information transfer for cochlear implant patients. The finding of temporal information in transient “onset” responses (a response seen only in the first 10 ms post-stimulus onset) of ramp-evoked responses-more than burst-evoked responses-support high pulse rate discriminability and the use of ramp stimuli for encoding high pulse rate information to implant patients.