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Software cochlear models



Hello list,
My name is Kyle Stratis and I'm an undergraduate student at the University of Florida. I am taking a course called The Psychobiology of Hearing, taught by Dr. David Smith who is also, I believe, a member on this list. For my final project in the class, I would like to write a software model of the cochlear outer hair cells. For now, I am content in writing this in a simple language such as Python and keeping it simple, however eventually (even after this class is through), I'd like to expand it to include both more hair cells, a GUI, and other features to make it more useful as a learning tool for both myself and any others. My plan of attack seems simple to me, however I'm sure there is something I'm missing. I'd like to use response curve (and possibly rate-level curve) data with enough information to find a modelling formula, using each formula to represent each hair cell. This will be fine for a smaller number of hair cells, however I can see how scaling problems can arise when getting to much higher numbers of hair cells. I was wondering if anyone on this list had any of this sort of data (detailed enough to make a regression) or other software models I could look at to refine my own ideas, as well as any further suggestions or information I can use to make this project even more accurate or useful. Below is a quick pseudocode outline of my current idea:

Print welcome message and short explanation
Print sound level references (ie Jackhammer at 1 m: 10 dB SPL)
Prompt user for input: sound level (dB SPL), frequency (Hz)
Run input through formulas for each hair cell
Print which hair cells activate, discharge rate, and (possibly) the probability of cell damage

Again, eventually I'd like to be able to write a GUI when I get more programming experience for this, and possibly even visually represent the hair cells, however for now this will be a simple text-based program and I plan on using some other method for naming the hair cells present. This is still in the very early stages of development, so this is a very rough draft and why I'm asking for some input on this, as well as directions to some data and other models that have been done.

Thank you all very much,
Kyle Stratis