The cochlea plays a special role with it being the information bottleneck in hearing.īasic effects like the representation of a signal masked by noise will provide us with essential information to describe the neural code of hearing and to utilize this to compensate for detrimental effects of hearing impairment.įigure 2: Peak amplitudes of auditory evoked potentials measured on human listeners. With non-invasive electrophysiological and numerical methods we investigate how sound information is represented in the neural representation of the brain. And we can not yet build a device that matches the performance of the hearing system in separating simultaneously present sound sources. In cases of hearing impairment we observe deficits in perception that we can not yet compensate for technologically. Knowledge wise is the brain just as mystical as deep space. How is acoustical information represented in the auditory brain and how does an impairment of the cochlea affect the neural representations along the auditory pathway? Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128(4), 1870-1883. Modeling cochlear dynamics: Interrelation between cochlea mechanics and psychoacoustics. Acta Acustica United With Acustica, 103(5), 721-724. A Nonlinear Transmission Line Model of the Cochlea With Temporal Integration Accounts for Duration Effects in Threshold Fine Structure. In To the Ear and Back Again - Advances in Auditory Biophysics American Institute of Physics. The mechanisms underlying multiple lobes in SOAE suppression tuning curves in a transmission line model of the cochlea. Clustering in an array of nonlinear and active oscillators as a model of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions. Regarding the cochlea as the biophysical system it is will help us to overcome current limitations set by oversimplifying its role to a simple filter bank. It is not the cochlea that determines perception, but it provides the input into the neural system which shapes and encodes the relevant information that makes us hear. We think that this phenomenon plays a key role in the processing of sound. Driving all oscillators with a sinusoidal force will change these plateaus. Coupling leads to organization of the oscillators into frequency plateaus. If the oscillators were not connected, each would oscillate at its individual frequency. This approach questions current ideas about how the cochlea maps incoming sound onto a monotonic frequency-place map.įigure 1: A chain of coupled, nonlinear oscillators driven by a sinusoidal force. These models can also be used to investigate clustering effects due to entrainment and synchronization and to link them to both, otoacoustic emissions and perception. We found that a nonlinear model solved in the time domain can account not only for physiological measures, but also links cochlear mechanics to basic psychoacoustical tasks. Numerical models help to identify these effects in hearing. We are convinced that nonlinear effects like synchronisation play a crucial role in the processing of sound. It outperforms all current technical systems in terms of dynamic range, energy efficiency, and sensitivity. The inner ear of humans is a sophisticated acousto-hydro-electro-mechanical transduction device. How is acoustical information encoded in the mechanical- and mechano-electrical transduction in the inner ear, the cochlea? We learn from nature how to solve this task (neurobiology) and we try to mimic nature in quantitative models (engineering). To answer these questions, we use various methodologies to describe what we observe (physics and mathematics) and how information contained in sound is processed by humans (psychology, physiology). The primary interest is the sense of hearing and, in particular, how acoustic information is processed and represented along the auditory pathway. Our focus lies on neurosensory systems to identify the physical and biological processes underlying information encoding and decoding in nature. We work, collaborate and share knowledge across disciplines to solve the global challenges caused by hearing loss, affecting up to one billion people worldwide. We are convinced that interdisciplinary work is the key to success.
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