Finite element analysis and three-dimensional reconstruction of tonotopically aligned human auditory fiber pathways: A computational environment for modeling electrical stimulation by a cochlear implant based on micro-CT.

The application of cochlear implants can be studied with computational models. The electrical potential distribution induced by an implanted device is evaluated with a volume conductor model, which is used as input for neuron models to simulate the reaction of cochlear neurons to micro-stimulation. In order to reliably predict the complex excitation profiles it is vital to consider an accurate representation of the human cochlea geometry including detailed three-dimensional pathways of auditory neurons reaching from the organ of Corti through the cochlea-volume. In this study, high-resolution micro-CT imaging (Δx = Δy = Δz = 3 μm) was used to reconstruct the pathways of 30 tonotopically organized nerve fiber bundles, distributed over eight octaves (11500-40 Hz). Results of the computational framework predict: (i) the peripheral process is most sensitive to cathodic stimulation (CAT), (ii) in many cases CAT elicits spikes in the peripheral terminal at threshold but with larger stimuli there is a second spike initiation site within the peripheral process, (iii) anodic stimuli (ANO) can excite the central process even at threshold, (iv) the recruitment of fibers by electrodes located in the narrowing middle- and apical turn is complex and impedes focal excitation of low frequency fibers, (v) degenerated cells which lost the peripheral process are more sensitive to CAT when their somata are totally covered with 2 membranes of a glial cell but they become ANO sensitive when the myelin covering is reduced.