Mapping Electrode Paths in the Inferior Colliculus

Additional contributors: Sarah Offutt; Hubert Lim (faculty mentor)Sound surrounds us in everyday life, but to those with a hearing deficit the world seems quiet. Understanding how the auditory system works is essential to creating new devices that will help the percent of the population living in a silent world. Experiments will simulate different regions of the Inferior Colliculus, a section of the brain, and obtain frequency maps. By playing different stimuli and comparing the maps obtained, we hope to better understand the plasticity of the brain. From here we can then further look into what areas are most effective at eliciting the wanted frequency shifts. This is one main are where my part of the research helps, as I create 3D reconstructions of the brains with all the electrode placements that were in place during the experiment. This will then give the anatomical location of the placements, so one can see the exact location where the changes are occurring