Effects of Electrical Stimulation in the Inferior Colliculus on Frequency Discrimination by Rhesus Monkeys and Implications for the Auditory Midbrain Implant.

Pages, Daniel S

Ross, Deborah A

Puñal, Vanessa M

Agashe, Shruti

Dweck, Isaac

Mueller, Jerel

Grill, Warren M

Wilson, Blake S

Groh, Jennifer M

2019-01-07T19:13:12Z

2019-01-07T19:13:12Z

2016-05

2019-01-07T19:13:11Z

Understanding the relationship between the auditory selectivity of neurons and their contribution to perception is critical to the design of effective auditory brain prosthetics. These prosthetics seek to mimic natural activity patterns to achieve desired perceptual outcomes. We measured the contribution of inferior colliculus (IC) sites to perception using combined recording and electrical stimulation. Monkeys performed a frequency-based discrimination task, reporting whether a probe sound was higher or lower in frequency than a reference sound. Stimulation pulses were paired with the probe sound on 50% of trials (0.5-80 μA, 100-300 Hz, n = 172 IC locations in 3 rhesus monkeys). Electrical stimulation tended to bias the animals' judgments in a fashion that was coarsely but significantly correlated with the best frequency of the stimulation site compared with the reference frequency used in the task. Although there was considerable variability in the effects of stimulation (including impairments in performance and shifts in performance away from the direction predicted based on the site's response properties), the results indicate that stimulation of the IC can evoke percepts correlated with the frequency-tuning properties of the IC. Consistent with the implications of recent human studies, the main avenue for improvement for the auditory midbrain implant suggested by our findings is to increase the number and spatial extent of electrodes, to increase the size of the region that can be electrically activated, and to provide a greater range of evoked percepts.Patients with hearing loss stemming from causes that interrupt the auditory pathway after the cochlea need a brain prosthetic to restore hearing. Recently, prosthetic stimulation in the human inferior colliculus (IC) was evaluated in a clinical trial. Thus far, speech understanding was limited for the subjects and this limitation is thought to be partly due to challenges in harnessing the sound frequency representation in the IC. Here, we tested the effects of IC stimulation in monkeys trained to report the sound frequencies they heard. Our results indicate that the IC can be used to introduce a range of frequency percepts and suggest that placement of a greater number of electrode contacts may improve the effectiveness of such implants.

36/18/5071

0270-6474

1529-2401

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/17889

eng

Society for Neuroscience

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience

10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3540-15.2016

Mesencephalon

Auditory Pathways

Animals

Macaca mulatta

Acoustic Stimulation

Electric Stimulation

Electrodes, Implanted

Cochlear Implants

Behavior, Animal

Discrimination (Psychology)

Algorithms

Female

Inferior Colliculi

Effects of Electrical Stimulation in the Inferior Colliculus on Frequency Discrimination by Rhesus Monkeys and Implications for the Auditory Midbrain Implant.

Journal article

Agashe, Shruti|0000-0003-0515-6066

Groh, Jennifer M|0000-0002-6435-3935

5071

5083

18

Pratt School of Engineering

Duke

Biomedical Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Neurobiology

Basic Science Departments

School of Medicine

Duke Science & Society

Initiatives

Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

University Institutes and Centers

Neurosurgery

Clinical Science Departments

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Psychology and Neuroscience

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

Duke Global Health Institute

Surgery, Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences

Surgery

Published

36