Improvement and Extension of Auditory Hazard Models
Abstract
The Blast Auditory Model (BAM) is a comprehensive outer to inner ear model under development that translates the extreme range of acoustic exposures encountered in the modern military service environment to clinically relevant predictions of cochlear and synaptic damage that can be mapped to operationally relevant metrics such as the loss of speech discrimination. To make predictions the BAM propagates the user provided incident blast wave through the modeled auditory system that was derived using novel experimental methods that included the use of laser Doppler velocimetry and strategically placed fiber-optic pressure sensors in the outer, middle, and inner ear for both a chinchilla model and human temporal bones. To provide a clinically relevant metric, the pressure output in the inner ear is used to selectively degrade the function of an auditory nerve fiber model. Once the model is fully validated, BAM will provide engineers developing improved hearing protection devices as well as clinicians and industrial hygienists, a tool for exploring the relationship between high intensity noise exposures and resulting deficits in operational performance metrics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1095746
Entities
People
- Daniel J. Tollin
- J.R. Easter
- Nathaniel T. Greene
- Ted Argo
- Timothy Walilko
Organizations
- Applied Research Associates (United States)