PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jablonski, Lukasz
AU  - Harczos, Tamas
AU  - Wolf, Bettina
AU  - Hoch, Gerhard
AU  - Dieter, Alexander
AU  - Hessler, Roland
AU  - Ayub, Suleman
AU  - Ruther, Patrick
AU  - Moser, Tobias
TI  - Hearing restoration by a low-weight power-efficient multichannel optogenetic cochlear implant system
AID  - 10.1101/2020.05.25.114868
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.05.25.114868
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/27/2020.05.25.114868.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/27/2020.05.25.114868.full
AB  - In case of deafness, cochlear implants bypass dysfunctional or lost hair cells by direct electrical stimulation (eCIs) of the auditory nerve. However, spectral selectivity of eCI sound coding is low as the wide current spread from each electrode activates large sets of neurons that align to a place-frequency (tonotopic) map in the cochlea. As light can be better confined in space, optical cochlear implants (oCIs) promise to overcome this shortcoming of eCIs. This requires fine-grained, fast, and power-efficient real-time sound analysis and control of multiple microscale emitters. Here, we describe the development, characterisation, and application for hearing restoration of a preclinical low-weight and wireless LED-based multichannel oCI system and its companion eCI system. The head-worn oCI system enabled deaf rats to perform a locomotion task in response to acoustic stimulation proofing of concept of multichannel optogenetic hearing restoration in rodents.Competing Interest StatementT.M. is a co-founder of OptoGenTech GmbH.