Computational Model of the Cochlear Implant User’s Auditory System

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

A Cochlear Implant (CI) is the only option to treat patients with profound hearing loss, but requires the tuning of a large number of parameters. However, the necessary objective and reproducible patient-specific data are still missing. Building on recent research using reaction times to acoustic spectrotemporal modulations, we developed a realistic simulator of the auditory system, considering the CI, the electrode output, the auditory nerve population, and the ultimate decision of stimulus detection by the brain. The simulation results are in line with measured Reaction-Time tests to spectrotemporal modulations, while also showing some resemblance to actual patient data.Clinical relevance- The simulator forms the basis for an optimisation method to find optimal CI parameters for each patient, necessitating only a limited number of measurements.