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Discuss “How Things Work: Cochlear Implants”

Superhuman hearing is usually something left to comic books, movies, and even fantasies of a more-advanced, future human race.

But this seemingly impossible future prospect is not as far away as you may think. Cochlear implants are one of the newest advancements in the bionic augmentation of human hearing. These devices are still in the development phase, but even the earliest versions of cochlear implants have successfully restored hearing to people who were once deaf.

Conventional hearing aids are simply crude sound amplifiers mounted outside the ear. Cochlear implants function in a somewhat more sophisticated way. Cochlear implants are essentially microphones connected directly to the auditory nerve endings within the ear, transmitting...

Comments

Comment 1. Patrick Condon
Jan 23, 2007 at 10:10 AM Report comment

As an educated recipient of a cochlear implant, I can unabashedly renounce this article as poorly researched, poorly communicated tripe. Very few of the \"facts\" presented in this article are, in fact, true. The majority of the generalizations are ineffectively communicated and lead the reader to inaccurate and very frightening conclusions about cochlear implants. If anyone reading this comment has a true interest in cochlear implants, please disregard everything in this article and search the web for ACCURATE information. There is plenty of it out there. Last but not least, there are three manufacturers of cochlear implants that have FDA approval in the US. Here are their websites for your edification: www.advancedbionics.com, www.cochlear.com, www.medel.com.

Comment 2. Jeanne Black
Jan 23, 2007 at 10:16 AM Report comment

Your description of current cochlear implant technology overstates the risks and does not accurately portray the capabilities of the most current devices and sound processing capabilities. Children who are born deaf and receive implants between 12 and 36 months develop language on a par with normal hearing children, and sound processing strategies have gone beyond mere speech recognition to enable the enjoyment of music. In addition, the candidates for cochlear implantation are not individuals with auditory nerve damage. They generally have severe hearing loss because the hair cells that line the cochlea are damaged or missing. The function of the hair cells is to convert sound waves into electrical signals that stimulate the auditory nerve. Thus, the implant replaces the function of the hair cells. A recent review article was published by Susan Waltzman at the NYU School of Medicine in Expert Rev. Med. Devices 2006, 3(5):647-55. It's quite technical, but well within the capabilities of CMU students :-). (And keep your iPod volume low, or you’ll damage your own hair cells sooner than you realize.)

From a former Pittsburgher, now working for Advanced Bionics, the only US-based cochlear implant manufacturer.

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