In vivo imaging and vibration measurement of Guinea pig cochlea

An optical coherence tomography (OCT) system was built to acquire in vivo, both images and vibration measurements of the organ of Corti of the guinea pig. The organ of Corti was viewed through a ~500-μm diameter hole in the bony wall of the scala tympani of the first cochlear turn. In imaging mode, the image was acquired as reflectance R(x,z). In vibration mode, the basilar membrane (BM) or reticular lamina (RL) was selected based on the image. Under software control, the system would move the scanning mirrors to bring the sensing volume of the measurement to the desired tissue location. To address the gain stability problem of the homodyne OCT system, arising from the system moving in and out of the quadrature point and also to resolve the 180 degree ambiguity in the phase measurement using an interferometer, a vibration calibration method is developed by adding a vibrating source to the reference arm to monitor the operating point of the interferometric system. Amplitude gain and phase of various cochlear membranes was measured for different sound pressure level (SPL) varying from 65dB SPL to 93 dB SPL.