EXPANDED WEB VERSION
Meet the Researcher
Olga Stakhovskaya, M.D., Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco
BIO
Stakhovskaya received her M.D. and Ph.D. at the Russian State Medical University in Moscow. She did three years of post-doctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, where she is currently an assistant research specialist.
IN HER WORDS
My research is focused on examining the anatomical differences seen among individual human cochleae and their effects on the performance of implantable hearing devices. In the same way hair color or height differs from person to person, inner ear structures can also vary. The length of the Organ of Corti, the initial structure to detect a sound wave in the human cochlea, can vary by almost 40 percent. Cochlear implant devices are designed to fit the average cochlea. We want to see whether determining the dimensions of an individual's cochlea can improve CI performance.
The length of the cochlea defines the distance required to reach a given frequency in each cochlea. So, longer cochleae require longer distances to reach a specific angle of rotation around the cochlear spiral as compared to shorter cochleae. We think we can refine these findings to predict the optimum insertion depth based on pre-surgical cochlea measurements. This will help avoid unnecessarily long insertions, which increases the risk of trauma, and help take advantage of new and improved coding strategies for speech processors, allowing more precise frequency resolution.
We started this project several years ago in the Epstein Lab. It began as a purely anatomical study to describe the course of the peripheral fibers from the inner hair cells into the spiral ganglion. The frequency distribution of the inner hair cells along the basilar membrane is well known and well described by a mathematical equation. In contrast, the frequency distribution of the spiral ganglion cells in the human cochlea was not known, and these are the cells that are the targets of stimulation by cochlear implants in hearing impaired individuals. In our first publication on this subject we derived an equation that accurately describes the frequency distribution of the spiral ganglion neurons based on histological measurements. So, the current project is a continuation of this work, aimed at applying these observations and improving electrode placement based on the individual anatomy of the living cochlea.
I completed my residency in pediatric otolaryngology at Moscow State Medical University. I spent several years in Moscow studying possible ways to lower the incidence and severity of ototoxicity caused by cisplatin or carboplatin -- potent chemotherapeutic agents -- in children with malignant tumors. Then I worked as a post-doc in the Epstein Lab in the Department of Otolaryngology at UCSF, looking at the effects of electrical stimulation and trophic factors on the survival of the spiral ganglion neurons and development of the cochlear nucleus. Participation in these studies and the experiments we did in the lab played a tremendous role in my development as a scientist. That is also where we started the project on the differences in human cochlea anatomy related to cochlear implantation.
No one in my family has hearing loss. But a little girl living not far from us when I was a child was blind. We did not communicate much, but I often thought about how different and more challenging her life must be. I think her unspoken presence helped me to develop compassion for people who are different in some way, but are kind and decent. One person can have all their senses and faculties preserved and use them for harmful purposes, while another person can be significantly impaired, but still work toward making things better.
I like reading books, especially in my native language, which is Russian. I'd guess anyone who has to speak a second language will understand this the best. The effortlessness with which you can read in your native language can provide an enormous sense of relaxation, while still enriching your mind with new information.
