Figure 1

Diagram of the simplified geometry of the cochlea and the laser stimulations scheme in the 3D modeling. (a) Illustration of the cross section of a human spiraled cochlea consisting of a spiral tube surrounding the modiolus. (b) Cross section of the rotational symmetry model in xz plane utilized in the 3D modeling. (c) Geometry of the laser-tissue interaction in the cochlea. (d) Illustration of the scheme that eight sites in the first turn of the cochlea that are stimulated by pulse-trains. The white scale bars in (a),(b) and (d) represent 1 mm, and the characters A and E in (b) and (d) mark the two sites where the temperature rise vs, time is presented in the following Figure 2.