Electrical Field Interactions during Adjacent Electrode Stimulations: eABR Evaluation in Cochlear Implant Users

The present study investigates how electrically evoked Auditory Brainstem Responses (eABRs) can be used to measure local channel interactions along cochlear implant (CI) electrode arrays. eABRs were recorded from 16 experienced CI patients in response to electrical pulse trains delivered using three stimulation configurations: (1) single electrode stimulations (E11 or E13); (2) simultaneous stimulation from two electrodes separated by one (E_n and E_n+2, E11 and E13); and (3) stimulations from three consecutive electrodes (E11, E12, and E13). Stimulation level was kept constant at 70% electrical dynamic range (EDR) on the two flanking electrodes (E11 and E13) and was varied from 0 to 100% EDR on the middle electrode (E12). We hypothesized that increasing the middle electrode stimulation level would cause increasing local electrical interactions, reflected in characteristics of the evoked compound eABR. Results show that group averaged eABR wave III and V latency and amplitude were reduced when stimulation level at the middle electrode was increased, in particular when stimulation level on E12 reached 40, 70, and 100% EDR. Compound eABRs can provide a detailed individual quantification of electrical interactions occurring at specific electrodes along the CI electrode array. This approach allows a fine determination of interactions at the single electrode level potentially informing audiological decisions regarding mapping of CI systems.