1. Responses of single auditory nerve fibers to combinations of noise and tone were obtained. The... more 1. Responses of single auditory nerve fibers to combinations of noise and tone were obtained. The results were found to depend on the relative effectiveness of each stimulus when presented alone. 2. When the response rate to one stimulus presented alone was considerably greater than the response rate to the other stimulus presented alone, the more effective stimulus dominated the responses when the two stimuli were combined. The more effective stimulus captured the response of the neuron. Thus, intense noise was found to mask responses to weaker tones, and intense tones were found to mask responses to weaker noise. This masking of the weaker stimulus is thought to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the most prominent response component. 3. When the two stimuli had similar effectiveness, complex interactions occurred. When the tone was near best (characteristic) frequency, partial summation effects occured. The tone partially suppressed the responses to the noise if other frequenci...
Work-related aspects of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) have engendered considerable research and de... more Work-related aspects of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) have engendered considerable research and debate resulting from its frequent occurrence in the population along with the cost of addressing it in the work place. Some studies have gone so far as to deny that CTS has any relation to work exposure, rather it largely results from predisposition of individuals. As such, the condition is non compensable leaving workers without any benefits due to their condition. This is despite the fact that high force and repetition of hand movements have been identified as CTS causes for years. As computer use has become endemic in recent years, several studies have concluded that the resulting exposures are insufficient to attribute any occupational causation to it. Rather, it is argued that genetic or worker pre-existing conditions are responsible for CTS development. This review analyses the existing literature to assess occupational carpal tunnel causation arising out of exposure to highly manual and repetitive jobs as well as intense exposure to keyboarding. We believe the literature supports a strong causal connection to carpal tunnel causation when exposed to highly repetitive and forceful jobs and a causal connection to keyboarding when the exposure dose is sufficient.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1973
Responses were obtained to tones from squirrel monkey auditory-nerve fibers having best frequenci... more Responses were obtained to tones from squirrel monkey auditory-nerve fibers having best frequencies between 6 and 9 kHz. The response areas were very asymmetrical, extending sometimes down to 200 Hz. Thresholds at the lower frequencies were, however, high. For frequencies below best frequency, the discharge rate data show generally consistent relationships. Plots of rate versus intensity (in decibels) are approximately parallel. Iso-rate contours are also generally parallel, with shifts along the intensity axis bringing them into registration. By contrast, for frequencies above best frequency, the rate versus intensity curves decrease in slope as frequency increases. Moreover, the intensity shifts used to bring the lower-frequency sections of the iso-rate contours into registration leave the higher-frequency sections out of registration. Period histograms were calculated at frequencies below 4 kHz. The phase of the histograms' fundamental component varies approximately linearly ...
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1967
Single neurons in the barbiturized cat's inferior colliculus responding to binaural acoustic ... more Single neurons in the barbiturized cat's inferior colliculus responding to binaural acoustic stimuli were monitored by platinum-iridium microelectrodes. Tones and bandpass noise were used as stimuli. Usually, the stimuli to each ear had identical waveforms but differing intensities, and one stimulus was delayed relative to the other. Results confirm and extend previous observations reported from this laboratory. Characteristics of responses obtained from different neurons differed so much that it was difficult to formulate response categories. Nevertheless, certain neurons were found to respond primarily to the intensity properties of the stimuli, while other neurons responded primarily to interaural time differences. In either cases, responses elicited by tones and by bands of noise had interesting differences: it was not possible to predict the characteristics of the responses to bandpass noise from the continuous-tone responses and vice versa. [This work was supported by NIH ...
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2006
Differences between cochlear mechanical tuning curves and those of auditory nerve fibers (ANFs) e... more Differences between cochlear mechanical tuning curves and those of auditory nerve fibers (ANFs) exist. In particular, mechanical transfer functions exhibit a high‐frequency plateau; ANFs frequency threshold curves (FTCs) do not. ANF‐FTCs may have a low‐frequency slope due to a velocity forcing function operating on inner hair cells at low frequencies. Neither basilar membrane velocity nor displacement adequately explain the entire ANF tuning curve. A displacement sensitive interferometer was used to study basilar membrane and spiral limbus mechanics in the 6‐kHz region of the chinchilla cochlea. The spiral limbus vibrates at the same phase as the basilar membrane nearly up to the location’s characteristic frequency. In the plateau region, the limbus appears to vibrate 0 to 20 dB less than the basilar membrane. The basilar membrane/limbus amplitude transfer function has a low‐frequency slope of ∼3 dB/oct at low frequencies and is ∼10 dB lower than the basilar membrane amplitude at 1 kHz. It appears that sp...
Abstract A data analysis system for neural unit data, a stochastic point process, which borrows f... more Abstract A data analysis system for neural unit data, a stochastic point process, which borrows from data base management technology has been written. The data analysis is controlled by a supervisory system which consists of a command interpreter, data file handler, and program initiator. A description of the data file is stored and is accessible to the supervisory system along with the data requirements for each analysis program. The supervisory system passes data from the data files to the analysis programs. The data consist of sequences of neural unit data which can be collected as part of a response area paradigm, that is, a two-dimensional stimulus space which is explored systematically, and the response of the neural unit is reduced to a sequence of threshold crossing times. A variety of analysis can be performed on this data including Poststimulus time histograms, Interval histograms, Joint interval histograms, Latency histograms, Period histograms, Latency dot displays, Autocorrelograms, Calculati...
1. Responses of single auditory nerve fibers to combinations of noise and tone were obtained. The... more 1. Responses of single auditory nerve fibers to combinations of noise and tone were obtained. The results were found to depend on the relative effectiveness of each stimulus when presented alone. 2. When the response rate to one stimulus presented alone was considerably greater than the response rate to the other stimulus presented alone, the more effective stimulus dominated the responses when the two stimuli were combined. The more effective stimulus captured the response of the neuron. Thus, intense noise was found to mask responses to weaker tones, and intense tones were found to mask responses to weaker noise. This masking of the weaker stimulus is thought to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the most prominent response component. 3. When the two stimuli had similar effectiveness, complex interactions occurred. When the tone was near best (characteristic) frequency, partial summation effects occured. The tone partially suppressed the responses to the noise if other frequenci...
Work-related aspects of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) have engendered considerable research and de... more Work-related aspects of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) have engendered considerable research and debate resulting from its frequent occurrence in the population along with the cost of addressing it in the work place. Some studies have gone so far as to deny that CTS has any relation to work exposure, rather it largely results from predisposition of individuals. As such, the condition is non compensable leaving workers without any benefits due to their condition. This is despite the fact that high force and repetition of hand movements have been identified as CTS causes for years. As computer use has become endemic in recent years, several studies have concluded that the resulting exposures are insufficient to attribute any occupational causation to it. Rather, it is argued that genetic or worker pre-existing conditions are responsible for CTS development. This review analyses the existing literature to assess occupational carpal tunnel causation arising out of exposure to highly manual and repetitive jobs as well as intense exposure to keyboarding. We believe the literature supports a strong causal connection to carpal tunnel causation when exposed to highly repetitive and forceful jobs and a causal connection to keyboarding when the exposure dose is sufficient.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1973
Responses were obtained to tones from squirrel monkey auditory-nerve fibers having best frequenci... more Responses were obtained to tones from squirrel monkey auditory-nerve fibers having best frequencies between 6 and 9 kHz. The response areas were very asymmetrical, extending sometimes down to 200 Hz. Thresholds at the lower frequencies were, however, high. For frequencies below best frequency, the discharge rate data show generally consistent relationships. Plots of rate versus intensity (in decibels) are approximately parallel. Iso-rate contours are also generally parallel, with shifts along the intensity axis bringing them into registration. By contrast, for frequencies above best frequency, the rate versus intensity curves decrease in slope as frequency increases. Moreover, the intensity shifts used to bring the lower-frequency sections of the iso-rate contours into registration leave the higher-frequency sections out of registration. Period histograms were calculated at frequencies below 4 kHz. The phase of the histograms' fundamental component varies approximately linearly ...
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1967
Single neurons in the barbiturized cat's inferior colliculus responding to binaural acoustic ... more Single neurons in the barbiturized cat's inferior colliculus responding to binaural acoustic stimuli were monitored by platinum-iridium microelectrodes. Tones and bandpass noise were used as stimuli. Usually, the stimuli to each ear had identical waveforms but differing intensities, and one stimulus was delayed relative to the other. Results confirm and extend previous observations reported from this laboratory. Characteristics of responses obtained from different neurons differed so much that it was difficult to formulate response categories. Nevertheless, certain neurons were found to respond primarily to the intensity properties of the stimuli, while other neurons responded primarily to interaural time differences. In either cases, responses elicited by tones and by bands of noise had interesting differences: it was not possible to predict the characteristics of the responses to bandpass noise from the continuous-tone responses and vice versa. [This work was supported by NIH ...
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2006
Differences between cochlear mechanical tuning curves and those of auditory nerve fibers (ANFs) e... more Differences between cochlear mechanical tuning curves and those of auditory nerve fibers (ANFs) exist. In particular, mechanical transfer functions exhibit a high‐frequency plateau; ANFs frequency threshold curves (FTCs) do not. ANF‐FTCs may have a low‐frequency slope due to a velocity forcing function operating on inner hair cells at low frequencies. Neither basilar membrane velocity nor displacement adequately explain the entire ANF tuning curve. A displacement sensitive interferometer was used to study basilar membrane and spiral limbus mechanics in the 6‐kHz region of the chinchilla cochlea. The spiral limbus vibrates at the same phase as the basilar membrane nearly up to the location’s characteristic frequency. In the plateau region, the limbus appears to vibrate 0 to 20 dB less than the basilar membrane. The basilar membrane/limbus amplitude transfer function has a low‐frequency slope of ∼3 dB/oct at low frequencies and is ∼10 dB lower than the basilar membrane amplitude at 1 kHz. It appears that sp...
Abstract A data analysis system for neural unit data, a stochastic point process, which borrows f... more Abstract A data analysis system for neural unit data, a stochastic point process, which borrows from data base management technology has been written. The data analysis is controlled by a supervisory system which consists of a command interpreter, data file handler, and program initiator. A description of the data file is stored and is accessible to the supervisory system along with the data requirements for each analysis program. The supervisory system passes data from the data files to the analysis programs. The data consist of sequences of neural unit data which can be collected as part of a response area paradigm, that is, a two-dimensional stimulus space which is explored systematically, and the response of the neural unit is reduced to a sequence of threshold crossing times. A variety of analysis can be performed on this data including Poststimulus time histograms, Interval histograms, Joint interval histograms, Latency histograms, Period histograms, Latency dot displays, Autocorrelograms, Calculati...
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