Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A E Hubbard

Publications and source records attributed to A E Hubbard.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Acoustic enhancement of electrically-evoked otoacoustic emissions reflects basilar membrane tuning: experiment results.

Acoustic enhancement of the electrically-evoked otoacoustic emissions (EEOEs) was investigated by systematically varying acoustic frequency and intensity. The results demonstrated that simultaneous acoustic stimulation at frequencies around the characteristic frequency of the electrical current injection place was most effective in enhancing low-frequency EEOEs. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the enhancement was tuned and graded. The enhancement threshold tuning curves (defined as sound pressure level needed to achieve 1 dB of enhancement) resembled basilar membrane tuning at high sound pressure levels. The data suggest that the emissions were generated from a cochlear region near the electrode place, and the magnitude of the enhancement depends on the magnitude of the basilar membrane response to the acoustic stimulus.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1990

Haircell forward and reverse transduction: differential suppression and enhancement.

Cochlear outer haircells are believed to play a significant role in an amplification process which greatly enhances inner ear sensitivity. Haircell forward (mechanical-to-electrical) and reverse (electrical-to-mechanical) transduction may be involved. We have produced decreases in cochlear microphonic and increases in electrically-evoked cochlear emissions using the drug, furosemide. The data indicate forward and reverse transduction are not a simple bi-directional process and suggest that the outer haircells are part of a negative feedback system.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Rapid force production in the cochlea.

Electrical stimulation of the mammalian cochlea causes a mechanical response which produces acoustic signals at the frequency of the electrical current. These electrically-evoked acoustic emissions can be as large as 34 dB SPL. Concurrent acoustic stimuli can enhance the emission response. Comparison of the enhancement effect with the cochlear microphonic (CM) suggests that the emissions originate from the outer hair cells (OHC). Frequency response measurements indicate a rate-limiting time constant for the force-generating process which is less than 35 microseconds.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Cochlear emissions simulated using one-dimensional model of cochlear hydrodynamics.

Stapes velocity was computed using a nonlinear, one-dimensional model of cochlear hydromechanics. The model's compliances and damping coefficients were mechanically nonlinear and instantaneously varying in proportion to simulated current injected into the cochlea. Experimental data showing the spectral content of the pressure waveform near the eardrum during the delivery of sound and current to the cochlea were compared with model results.

Cochlea↗
PubMed1983

Alternating current delivered into the scala media alters sound pressure at the eardrum.

Alternating current delivered into the scala media of the gerbil cochlea modulates the amplitude of a test tone measured near the eardrum. Variations in the electromechanical effect with acoustic stimulus parameters and observed physiological vulnerability suggest that cochlear hair cells are the biophysical origin of the process. Cochlear hair cells have traditionally been thought of as passive receptor cells, but they may play an active role in cochlear micromechanics.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1981

Responses of auditory-nerve fibers to characteristic-frequency tones and low-frequency suppressors.

Responses of single auditory-nerve fibers to combinations of low-frequency (suppressor) and characteristic frequency (CF) tones were recorded. The shapes of period histograms were observed as the level of the suppressor was raised. For fibers with CFs above 5.0 kHz, at the lowest suppressor levels used, the phase of the suppressor tone which caused instantaneous rate to increase when presented alone caused a rate decrease when added to a CF tone. For suppressor frequencies of 500 and 100 Hz, as suppressor level is increased, two peaks appear in the period histograms. Further increase in level causes first one, then the other of these peaks to disappear and the histogram takes on the shape of the histogram to the suppressor alone. A similar progression of histogram shape follows a decrease in CF tone level for fixed suppressor level.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1980

Voltage-dependent elements are involved in the generation of the cochlear microphonic and the sound-induced resistance changes measured in scala media of the guinea pig.

The injection of d.c. current into scale media alters both the cochlear microphonic (CM) and the acoustically synchronized changing resistance (CR) measured in scala media. Positive current increases the CM and decreases the CR. The effect on the CM is greatest at high sound pressure level (SPL), whereas the effect on CR is greatest at low SPL. Negative current has a similar but opposite effect on both the CM and the CR. The results suggest that a voltage-dependent nonlinear element exists in cochlear hair cells.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1980

Stimulation of efferents alters the cochlear microphonic and the sound-induced resistance changes measured in scale media of the guinea pig.

Electrical stimulation of the crossed olivo-cochlear bundle (COCB) increases both the cochlear microphonic and the acoustically synchronized changing resistance (CR) and it causes a decrease in the electrical impedance of scala media of the guinea pig. The similarity between the change in CR due to COCB stimulation and the change in CR due to negative d.c. polarization (Mountain, D.C., Hubbard, A.E. and Geisler, C.D. (1980): Hearing Res. 3, 215-229) suggests that the CR is dependent on the hair cell membrane potential measured with respect to scale tympani.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1980

Sound-induced resistance changes in the inner ear.

A new technique for measuring sound-induced resistance changes (CR) in scala media in response to pure-tone stimuli by injecting alternating current into guinea-pig cochleas was reported recently [C.D. Geisler et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 61, 1557-1566 (1977)]. Detailed measurements with this technique indicate that while the CR behaves approximately as does the cochlear microphonic (CM) there can be very significant differences between the two variables under certain experimental conditions. Computer analysis of simultaneously recorded CR voltage components and CM indicates that the CR harmonics, in both amplitude and phase, behaved differently with sound intensity and with asphyxia than did the CM harmonies (A.E. Hubbard et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am 66, 431-445 (1979)]. Direct current injection and stimulation of the crossed olivocochlear bundle (COCB) indicate further differences between CM and CR (D.C. Mountain, Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1978). Positive dc caused a relative augmentation of CM that grew with sound intensity, and a relative reduction in CR magnitude that decreased with intensity. Negative dc caused effects of similar magnitude but opposite sign. COCB stimulation caused enhancement of both CM and CR. Present models cannot account quantitatively for these results.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1979

The spectral content of the cochlear microphonic measured in scala media of the guinea pig cochlea.

Cochlear microphonic (CM) in response to low-frequency tonal stimuli, measured as a function of sound-pressure level (SPL) in scala media of the guinea pig cochlea, was averaged and Fourier analyzed. The slope of the amplitude of the Nth CM harmonic versus sound intensity in log-log coordinates was approximately N (1 less than or equal to N less than or equal to 5) in the first three cochlear turns, but notable variations on such a slope rule were found to apply to CM in turn I. CM harmonic phases plotted versus SPL were found to group into two distinctive categories expressly delimited by whether the order of the harmonic was even or odd. Some difference between CM recorded between scala media and scala tympani and recorded between scala media and the animal's neck could be attributed to neural contamination. We also found CM in its saturation region to have a hysteretic relation to the input sound pressure. At high sound levels, large, physiologically produced acoustic harmonics existed at the animal's eardrum. Our data support an asymmetrical, saturating, single-valued nonlinearity as a model for CM generation at low sound levels. At higher sound levels a different, more complex, hysteretic nonlinearity seems mandatory.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1979

Comparison of the spectra of the cochlear microphonic and of the sound-elicited electrical impedance changes measured in scala media of the guinea pig.

The harmonic structure of the cochlear microphonic (CM) and that of a sound-elicited signal which we have considered as an (apparent) changing resistance (CR) were simultaneously determined in scala media of the first turn of the guinea pig cochlea. We analyzed our data in the context of the Davis variable resistance hair-cell model (1965), which predicts CM and CR to be proportional to each other. But, plotted as functions of the sound-pressure level, CM and CR were found to have qualitatively similar but quantitatively disproportionate spectra. The preparations with the highest endolymphatic potential showed the least correspondence between the spectra of the two measured quantities. The phase angles of the fundamental components in CM and CR were equal within approximately 10 degrees, but the phase of the even harmonics of the two independent measures commonly differed by approximately 180 degrees at lower SPLs. Although most data were collected using 160-Hz tonal stimulation, tones with frequencies up to 1280 Hz produced qualitatively similar results. The CM and the CR both varied slightly with the level of the alternating current used to probe the CR. Considered on a quantitative basis, consistent with the accuracy of our measurements, any model which reduces to a fixed source, a fixed resistance, and a single linear, time-varying resistance cannot mimic the most significant, commonly found aspects of our CM and CR data. An alternate model incorporating a nonlinear, time-invariant resistance is able to account for some of the data. The output of the model is correctly considered a (time) changing resistance, or apparent changing resistance; but the model demonstrates that similar experimental results are not necessarily evidence for a time-varying resistor as originally proposed by Davis.

Acoustic Stimulation↗