Field patterns in a 3D tapered spiral model of the electrically stimulated cochlea

Despite the fact that cochlear implants are widely and successfully used in clinical practice, relatively little is known to date about the electric field patterns they set up in the cochlea. Based upon the available measurements and modelling results, the scala tympani is usually considered to be a preferential current pathway that acts like a leaky transmission line. Therefore, most authors assume the current thresholds to decay exponentially along the length of the scala tympani. Here we present potential distributions calculated with a fully three-dimensional, spiralling volume conduction model of the guinea pig cochlea, and try to identify its preferential current pathways. The relatively well conducting scala tympani turns out to be the main one indeed, but the exponential decay (J approximately e(-z)) of current is only a good description of the far-field behaviour. In the vicinity of the electrodes, i.e. near the fibres that are most easily excited, higher current densities are found, that are best described by a spherical spread of the current (J approximately 1/R(2)). The results are compared with those obtained with a variant of our previous, rotationally symmetric, model and with measurements in the literature. The implications of the findings are discussed in the light of simulated neural responses.