Natural and Artificial Control of Hearing and Balance

Part 1 Vestibular and auditory receptor physiology: efferent synapse mechanisms in chick hair cells; cochlear function reflected in mammalian hair cell responses; sound processing by a.c. and d.c. movements of cochlear outer hair cells; performance of the avian inner ear; mechanical demodulation of hydrodynamic stimuli performed by the lateral line organ. Part 2 Otoacoustic emissions: amplitude fluctuations of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions caused by internal and externally applied noise sources; exploration of cochlear function by otoacoustic emmissions - relationship to pure-tone audiometry; distortion-product otoacoustic emmissions in normal and impaired ears - insights into generation processes. Part 3 Central auditory physiology: responses to speech signals in the normal and pathological peripheral auditory system; varieties of inhibition in the processing and control of processing in the mammalian cochlear nucleus; functional consequences of neonatal unilateral cochlear removal; functional organization and learning-related placticity in auditory cortex of the mongolian gerbil. Part 4 Interaction of cortical and proprioceptive reflex pathways controlling posture and gait: new aspects of human muscle coordination as revealed by motor-unit studies; interactions between pathways controlling posture and gait at the level of spinal interneurones in the cat; fusimotor control of proprioceptive feedback during locomotion and balancing - can simple lessons be learned for artificial control of gait?. Part 5 Vestibular control of posture: synaptic organization of the vestibulo-collic pathways from six semicircular canals to motoneurons of different neck muscles; vestibulospinal reflexes and the reticular formation; stance and balance following bilateral labyrinthectomy. Part 6 Neuroprosthetic control of hearing: quantitative comparison of electrically and acoustically evoked auditory perception - implications for the location of perceptual mechanisms; pattern recognition and masking in cochlear implant patients; a digital speech processor and various speech encoding strategies for cochlear implants; new hardware for analog and combined analog and pulsatile sound-encoding strategies. Part 7 Neuroprosthetic control of posture and gait: synergies and strategies underlying normal and vestibularly deficient control of balance - implications for neuroprosthetic control; human standing posture - multijoint movement strategies based on biomechanical contraints; an integrated EMG/biomechanical model of upper body balance and posture during human gait; control of standing and gait using electrical stimulation - influence of muscle model complexity on control strategy. (Part Contents).