Cochlear implants have been around for years, restoring hearing for many people. But, as this ScienCentral video explains, a new version promises to improve the quality of what patients hear.
Dr. David Acus of Herrick Memorial Hospital in Tecumseh, Michigan was a twenty-five year veteran of the emergency room when hearing loss forced him to quit his job. Then he got a cochlear implant.
“The cochlear implant is wonderful. It’s allowed me to go back to work.”
In a healthy ear, vibrations are translated into electrical signals inside the cochlea, a small bony structure of the inner ear. The signals are sent to the brain via the auditory nerve. Congenital problems, injury, illness, or aging can cause hearing loss. One solution is to insert an electrical array into the cochlea that translates external sounds into electrical impulses.
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Anatomy of inner ear.
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These conventional cochlear implants are remarkably effective, and have improved the hearing of nearly 100,000 deaf people worldwide. However, the implants stimulate the ear's auditory nerve indirectly, through the bony wall of the cochlea. Neuroscientist
John Middlebrooks of the
University of Michigan points out that muddles music and vocal tones.
“It’s a little bit like playing a piano with boxing gloves on your hands: you can make a big sound, and you can touch all the keys, but you can’t play single keys individually.”
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