Finite Element Modeling of Organ of Cortis Throughout the Cochlea During Blast Wave Transmission.

Authors

John Bradshaw, Marcus Brown, Roshan Sharma, Rong Z Gan, Yijie Jiang

Published in

Military medicine. Volume 191. Issue Supplement_1. Pages 571-579. Aug 01, 2026.

Abstract

Exposure to blast overpressures in the line of duty causes many service members and veterans to suffer inner ear injuries and the resulting hearing disabilities. The response to blast waves within the cochlea, particularly by the sensory hair cells within the organ of Corti (OC), is challenging to measure experimentally. Recently, 3D finite element (FE) models of the human ear at macroscale and OC models at microscale have been established to examine the blast transmission throughout the ear and the OC response at the middle turn of the basilar membrane (BM). This multiscale model was lacking OC models at other locations along the BM, which would allow the investigation of OC behavior and distribution of injury throughout the cochlea.
Microscale FE models of the OC were developed representing the basal, middle, and apical turns of cochlea, located 4.25, 16.8, and 29.3 mm from the base of the BM. Each model contained the comprehensive biostructures of membranes, sensory hair cells, and supporting cells, with changes in their dimensions and localized material properties. BM displacements caused by transmission of a 30 kPa blast overpressure were derived from the macroscale ear model and applied as input to the BM in each OC model. The simulations were run for 2 ms with a 1 μs time step. The displacements, stresses, and strains on each component were tracked.
The stress on the sensory outer hair cells (OHCs) and the strain at the connection between the tectorial membrane (TcM) and stereociliary hair bundles (HBs) were used as the primary metrics that could indicate injury to the OC. The basal turn OC model reported the highest stress on the OHCs, with a maximum von Mises stress of 0.84 kPa. OHC stress is associated with hair cell apoptosis, and documented hair cell loss because of blast exposure is concentrated in the basal turn of the cochlea. The model-derived results align with these observations. The strain on the TcM was most severe on its connections to HBs, with the highest maximum strain reported occurring in the middle turn OC model. This strain may indicate the decoupling of stereocilia from the TcM without hair cell death, which is an inner ear injury unique to blast-damaged cochleae.
Three microscale FE models of the OC were developed and provided detailed information about the blast-induced inner ear biomechanical behavior. The stress on the OHCs and strain at the connection between the TcM and HBs were used to predict the likelihood of injury, which appeared most likely in the basal and middle turns of the cochlea. This study represents an important step towards a comprehensive and accurate model of the human ear.

PMID:
42560190
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 06 Aug 2026.

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