Refractory Property of the Auditory Nerve in Prelingual Cochlear Implant Users
摘要
One aspect of the neural response to sound that has not been extensively investigated is refractoriness in CI users which can be used to measure the efficiency of its functioning, temporal properties of auditory nerve and comment on auditory deprivation. Therefore, herein we measure the refractory period by recording the minimum and maximum Inter Pulse Interval and compare it across regions of the cochlea.
Materials and MethodsTotal of 21 Cochlear Implant (CI) users with MedEl in the age range of 2 years to 13 years were included in the study. Participants included in the study were individually measured with electrically evoked Compound Action Potential (ECAP), Amplitude Growth Function (AGF) and recovery function with varying Inter Pulse Interval (IPI).
ResultsThe results show, 500µsec to be the minimum inter pulse interval at the apical region contributing to recovery function. 400µsec to be minimum inter pulse interval in middle and basal region to be significant. The 3 regions show a linear increase in mean amplitude with increase in inter pulse interval. All high inter pulse intervals show significance in all 3 regions.
ConclusionFrom this it may be inferred that significant difference is seen among the 3 regions of the cochlea there by rejecting the hypothesis that there is no significant difference between inter pulse interval across three regions of the cochlea.