Publications by authors named "Ajmal A Azees"
Cochlear implants are among the few clinical interventions for people with severe or profound hearing loss. However, current spread during monopolar electrical stimulation results in poor spectral resolution, prompting the exploration of optical stimulation as an alternative approach. Enabled by introducing light-sensitive ion channels into auditory neurons (optogenetics), optical stimulation has been shown to activate a more discrete neural area with minimal overlap between each frequency channel during simultaneous stimulation.
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- Novel stimulation methods are required to address the limitations of current cochlear implants, with optogenetics offering a promising solution by enabling light-sensitive control of auditory neurons.
- Research compared the effectiveness of two channelrhodopsins, ChR2-H134R and ChIEF, in stimulating auditory responses at different pulse rates, revealing that ChIEF performed better at lower rates but showed issues at higher rates.
- Combined optogenetic and electrical stimulation enhanced responses at high rates but caused significant deterioration of optogenetic responses with prolonged use, highlighting key challenges for developing effective treatments for hearing loss.
For individuals with severe to profound hearing loss resulting from irreversibly damaged hair cells, cochlear implants can be used to restore hearing by delivering electrical stimulation directly to the spiral ganglion neurons. However, current spread lowers the spatial resolution of neural activation. Since light can be easily confined, optogenetics is a technique that has the potential to improve the precision of neural activation, whereby visible light is used to stimulate neurons that are modified with light-sensitive opsins.
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