Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics Laboratory
The Auditory Neuroscience and Optogenetics Laboratory studies how the auditory system processes acoustic information in normal and prosthetic hearing. We study the requirement in frequency resolution of auditory coding in the cochlea for vocal communication in primates working with marmosets as a non-human primate model with a rich vocal communication. Our work is driven by the motivation to enhance the frequency resolution of sound coding by the clinical cochlear implant for improved hearing restoration.
The cochlear implant, used worldwide by more than 500.000 hearing impaired people, typically enables open speech understanding and is considered the most successful neuroprosthesis. Nonetheless, listening in noisy environments as well as music appreciation remain challenging mostly because of the poor frequency and intensity resolution that results from broad current spread from of each of the 1-2 dozens of electrode contacts (see image above: Electrical Cochlear Implant). Since light can be conveniently focused, using optogenetic stimulation of the spiral ganglion of the cochlea (see image above: Optical Cochlear Implant) promises a fundamental improvement of frequency and intensity coding compared to that achievable with electrical cochlear implants.
This principle involves the expression of light-sensitive ion channels, so called channelrhodopsins in the neurons in order to render them light-sensitive. Placing linear emitter arrays (e.g. (Gossler et al., 2014), see figure 1) into the cochlea, one might be enable true multichannel stimulation with tens of independent information channels to the neurons. Building on our work in rodents at the University Medical Center Göttingen (Hernandez et al., 2014, see figure 2), our research at the German Primate Center employs the marmoset as a late preclinical primate model to study the feasibility of optogenetic cochlear implants prior to translation into the clinic and specifically to gain insights from behavioral experiments into the quality of sound perception with optogenetic stimulation of the cochlea in comparison to acoustic and electrical stimulation.
Funding comes from the European Research Council through the advanced grant OptoHear, the DFG Leibniz Program, the University Medical Center Göttingen and State of Lower Saxony.
Publications
Kleinlogel* S, Vogl* C, Jeschke* M, Neef J, Moser T (2020) Emerging approaches for restoration of hearing and vision. Physiological Reviews, Available at: https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00035.2019.
* Equal contribution.
Dieter A, Keppeler D, Moser, T. Towards the Optical Cochlear Implant: Optogenetic Approaches for Hearing Restoration, EMBO Mol Medicine, 2020, accepted.
Moser T, Dieter A. Towards optogenetic approaches for hearing restoration, Science Direct, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications: 10.1016/j.bbrc. 2019.12.126, February 2020.
Dieter A, Duque Afonso CJ, Rankovic V, Jeschke M, Moser T. Near physiological spectral selectivity of cochlear optogenetics. Nature Communications, 2019 10(1): 1962, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09980-7
Keppeler D, Martins Merino R, Lopez de la Morena D, Bali B, Huet A T, Gehrt A, Wrobel C, Subramanian S, Dombrowski T, Wolf F, Rankovic V, Neef A, Moser T. Ultrafast optogenetic stimulation of the auditory pathway by targeting-optimized Chronos. EMBO Journal, November 2018.
Dombrowski T, Rankovic V, Moser T. Towards the optical cochlear implant. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press October 2018.
Wrobel C, Dieter A, Huet A, Keppeler D, Duque-Afonso C J, Vogl C, Hoch G, Jeschke M, Moser T. Optogenetic stimulation of cochlear neurons activates the auditory pathway and restores auditory-driven behavior in deaf adult gerbils. Sci Transl Med. 2018: 10(449): eaao0540. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aao0540
Mager T, de la Morena D, Senn V, Schlotte J, D´Errico A, Feldbauer K, Wrobel C, Jung S, Bodensiek K, Rankovic V, Browne L, Huet A, Jüttner J, Wood P, Letzkus J, Moser T, Bamberg E (2018) High frequency neural spiking and auditory signaling by ultrafast red-shifted optogenetics.
Nature Communications 2018 9(1):1750 doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04146-3.
Gossler, C., Bierbrauer, C., Moser, R., Kunzer, M., Holc, K., Koehler, K., Wagner, J., Schwaerzle, M., Ruther, P., Paul, O., et al. (2014) GaN-based micro-LED arrays on flexible substrates for optical cochlear implants. Journal of Physics D: Appl. Phys. 47 205401 doi:10.1088/0022-3727/47/20/205401
Hernandez, V.H., Gehrt, A., Reuter, K., Jing, Z., Jeschke, M., Mendoza Schulz, A., Hoch, G., Bartels, M., Vogt, G., Garnham, C.W., et al. (2014). Optogenetic stimulation of the auditory pathway. J. Clin. Invest. 124, 1114–1129. http://www.jci.org/articles/view/69050
Hernandez VH, Gehrt A, Jing Z, Hoch G, Jeschke M, Strenzke N, Moser T. Optogenetic stimulation of the auditory nerve. J Vis Exp. 2014 Oct 8;(92):e52069. http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/10/449/eaao0540
Jeschke M, Moser T. Considering optogenetic stimulation for cochlear implants. Hear Res. 2015 Apr;322:224-234. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2015.01.005. Epub 2015 Jan 16. Review. PMID: 25601298
Moser T. Optogenetic stimulation of the auditory pathway for research and future prosthetics. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2015 Jan 28;34C:29-36. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2015.01.004. [Epub ahead of print] Review. PMID: 25637880
Moser T, Vogl C. New insights into cochlear sound encoding [version 1; referees: 2 approved]. F1000Research 2016, 5(F1000 Faculty Rev):2081 (doi: 10.12688/f1000research.8924.1)
Contact
Burak Bali Restorative Cochlear Genomics Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-244 Contact
Jorge Cabrera Moreno Cognitive hearing in primates group +49 551 3851-195 Contact
Nadine Dietrich Cognitive Hearing in Primates Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-210 Contact
Daniela Gerke Technical Assistant +49 551 3851-244 Contact
Ludwig Ehrenreich Auditory Neuroscience Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-193 Contact
Dr. Tamas Harczos Auditory Neuroscience Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-205 Contact
Gerhard Hoch Auditory Neuroscience Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-193 Contact
Dr. Antoine Huet Auditory Neuroscience Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-244 Contact
Lakshay Khurana Auditory Neuroscience Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-205 Contact
Dr. Kathrin Kusch Auditory Neuroscience Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-209 Contact
Dr. Vladan Ranković Restorative Cochlear Genomics Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-209 Contact
![[Translate to English:] Foto: Karin Tilch](/fileadmin/content/Plattformen/Neuro-Optogenetik/Sadoun_skaliert.png "[Translate to English:] Foto: Karin Tilch")
Dr. Amirouche Sadoun Cognitive hearing in primates group +49 551 3851-195 Contact
Dr. Katja Saldeitis Cognitive hearing in primates group +49 551 3851-244 Contact
Dr. Bettina Wolf Auditory Neuroscience Group and University Medical Center +49 551 3851-244 Contact