In many psychoacoustical tasks, hearing-impaired subjects display abnormal audiograms and poor understanding of speech compared to normal listeners. Existing models that explain the performance of the hearing impaired indicate that possible sources for cochlear hearing loss may be the dysfunction of the outer and inner hair cells. In this study, a model of the auditory system is introduced. It includes two stages: (1) a nonlinear time domain cochlear model with active outer hair cells that are driven by the tectorial membrane motion and (2) a synaptic model that generates the auditory nerve instantaneous rate as a response to the basilar membrane motion and is affected by the inner hair cell transduction efficiency. The model can fit both a normal auditory system and an abnormal auditory system with easily induced pathologies.
Part of the book: Update On Hearing Loss