Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 22: Posters - Neurosciences
BP 22.1: Poster
Montag, 7. März 2016, 17:30–19:30, Poster C
Putative role of stochastic resonance in tinnitus — •Christian Schuetz1,2, Patrick Krauss1,2, Claus Metzner2, and Holger Schulze1 — 1Experimental Otolaryngology, ENT-Hospital, University of Erlangen, Germany — 2Department of Physics, Biophysics Group, University of Erlangen, Germany
Maladaptive processes within the auditory system following damages of the inner ear are discussed as the origin of the phantom perception of tinnitus. Models of tinnitus development postulate that acoustic trauma initially leads to reduced input into auditory nerve fibers. Remarkably, the neural activity within the central auditory pathway increases. This finding led to models of increased neuronal gain underlying the perception of tinnitus, but the source and control of this gain still remains elusive. We here investigate the role of stochastic resonance in neural sensory systems and its putative influence on the development of tinnitus. We construct a biologically plausible neural network of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons that models the auditory system and adjusts the appropriate level of noise via a feedback loop to maintain maximum information transmission in terms of mutual information. So far, we were able to show in our model that reduced input leads to increased network activity, which is perfectly consistent with experimental data. Furthermore, by adding plasticity to our model we demonstrate how long-term auditory phantom percepts, namely tinnitus, may emerge from short-term changes of processing dynamics.