Decrement in auditory nerve function following acute high rate stimulation in guinea pigs [Abstract]

Abstract

Cochlear implants have been shown to successfully provide profoundly deaf patients with auditory cues for speech discrimination. Psychophysical studies suggested that speech processing strategies based on stimulus rates of up to 1000 pulses per second (pps) may lead to an improvement in speech perception, due to a better representation of the rapid variations in the amplitude of speech. However, "neural fatigue" has been known to occur following brief periods of electrical stimulation at rates high enough to ensure that stimuli occur within the neurons relative refractory period, and has been shown to depend on stimulus duration and rate of the evoked neural activity. Prolonged electrical stimulation at these high stimulus rates could, therefore, have an adverse effect on the neurons metabolism and result in cellular energy depletion.