Designing the Optogenetic Control of Spiral Ganglion Neuron Populations for Maximal Audi-tory Information Flow (B03)

• Subject Area: Experimental and Theoretical Network Neuroscience ; Biomedical Systems Technology ; Statistical Physics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Complex Systems, Soft and Fluid Matter, Biological Physics
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528760423

Optogenetic cochlear implants (oCIs), by allowing improved frequency specificity of stimulation, promise major advances in CI-based treatments. Ways to address differentially sensitive subpopulations of spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) and to optimize the temporal precision of their optical control are largely unexplored. Building on our work on dynamic population coding, modeling of auditory processing, and optimization of neural systems, I propose computational and theoretical work to optimize the temporal precision of controlling SGN activity, explore and characterize strategies to realize a splitting of information analogous to SGN subpopulations, and to restore an asynchronous population code in SGN populations forming a collective information channel.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1690: Disease Mechanisms and Functional Restoration of Sensory and Motor Systems
• Applicant Institution: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Fred Wolf