Modeling the effects of medial olivocochlear efferent stimulation at the level of the inferior colliculus. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Various studies on medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferents have implicated it in multiple roles in the auditory system (e.g., dynamic range adaptation, masking reduction, and selective attention). This study presents a systematic simulation of inferior colliculus (IC) responses with and without electrical stimulation of the MOC. Phenomenological models of the responses of auditory nerve (AN) fibers and IC neurons were used to this end. The simulated responses were highly consistent with physiological data (replicated 3 of the 4 known rate-level responses all MOC effects-shifts, high stimulus level reduction and enhancement). Complex MOC efferent effects which were previously thought to require integration from different characteristic frequency (CF) neurons were simulated using the same frequency inhibition excitation circuitry. MOC-induced enhancing effects were found only in neurons with a CF range from 750Hz to 2kHz. This limited effect is indicative of the role of MOC activation on the AN responses at the stimulus offset.

published proceedings

  • Exp Brain Res

author list (cited authors)

  • Kwan, T., Zilany, M., Davies-Venn, E., & Abdul Wahab, A. K.

citation count

  • 1

complete list of authors

  • Kwan, TJM||Zilany, MSA||Davies-Venn, E||Abdul Wahab, Ahmad Khairi

publication date

  • January 2019