Auditory Physiology Experiments in-vivo

Currently at IIT Bombay, we do not conduct live animal experiments. However, we continue to develop novel experimental methods applicable to hearing research. These new developments will be updated in the future.

The section below summarizes the work done by Dr. Ramamoorthy and colleagues at OHSU in Nuttall Lab.

Sound entering the ear stimulates the cochlea and launches a fluid-structure traveling wave along the structures in the inner ear. These vibrations are highly complex in a living mammal and are vulnerable to damage. Inner ear vibrations in a living mammal could therefore provide important information on the mechanisms of normal and impaired hearing.The phase-sensitive Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (PSFDOCT) is ideal to measure inner-ear vibrations because it can detect (a) vibrations of samples with very low native reflectance without the need to introduce reflective objects, (b) Angstrom-level vibration through tissue, (c) vibrations over a wide frequency range, and (d) simultaneously image the structure to identify where the vibrations are detected. Auditory physiology measurements in live rodents revealed new information on processing of sounds inside the live mammalian cochlea. Short summary is provided below. Please refer to our publications for details.