TITLE:
Automatic Detection of the Electrical Elicited Stapedius Reflex by Evaluation of Its Electromyographic Signals
AUTHORS:
Ralf Warmuth, Martin Behrens, Martin Behrens, Rüdiger Dahl, Karsten Ehrt, Hans Wilhelm Pau, Ralf Salomon
KEYWORDS:
Stapedius Reflex; Cochlear Implant; Automatic Adjustment; Electromyography; Stapedial Reaction
JOURNAL NAME:
Engineering,
Vol.6 No.4,
March
14,
2014
ABSTRACT: This paper provides a first preliminary
description of the dependencies between the stapedius muscle’s behavior and its
neuronal activation with the adjustment of cochlear implants in mind. For that,
stapedial electromyography (EMG) data are compared with EMG data which were derived from the quadriceps femoris
muscle. The rationale behind is, that the stapedius muscle is classified as a striated skeletal muscle as the
quadriceps femoris muscle is. Thus, the stapedius should expose a behavior which is similar to that of peripheral skeletal
muscles. The stapedial reactions were provoked with contralateral acoustic
stimulation and ipsilateral electrical stimulation, respectively. The data from the quadriceps
femoris muscle were evoked voluntarily. The correlation of the derived data and
their stimuli have shown the following main key points: 1) The
stapedius muscle behaves like a regular skeletal muscle; 2) The stapedius muscle exhibits an extended
range in which the muscle’s force is linear to the stimulation; 3) On both sides of the linear regime, the
stapedius muscle exhibits a sigmoidal behavior.