A silent world is the life for someone with profound hearing loss. This happens when the cochlear nerve or the auditory nerve experience severe damage. In this case, the tiny hair cells in the cochlea nerve are no longer viable and cannot send electrical impulses to the brain to be translated. This damage can occur at any time, whether before birth or long after and results in profound deafness for that individual.
Science and technological advances have come up with a possible answer to this problem. The cochlear implant is a device that can be used by someone with profound hearing loss to gain back sounds they have long since lost or actually hear sounds they have never heard for the very first time.
In order to use the cochlear implant, it must be surgically implanted into the side of the head, behind the ear on the temporal bone. An external part of the device is then worn around the ear, similar to that of a BTE or behind the ear hearing aid. The implant then takes the place of damaged inner ear structures by using vibrations to send signals to the brain for translation into sound.
How Does the Implant Work?
The cochlear implant device is comprised of internal and external pieces. The external part consists of:
- microphone - battery - magnet - radio-frequency antenna that transmits sound - micro-computer that processes sound.
The internal component also referred to as the receiver/stimulator receives signals from the external component which has turned sound into the signal. The internal part is comprised of a micro-computer, radio antenna, electrode array and a magnet. The magnets are of both polarities and are used to hold the external component over the internal part.
The job of the microphone is to pick up environmental sounds and send them to the speech processor or micro-computer to be converted into signals which are then transmitted to the undamaged cochlear fibers. Once there, they are then sent to the electrodes which then send them to the brain for interpretation into sound.
A cochlear implant does not produce sound as we are familiar. Instead, it translates sounds from the environment into signals which are then transmitted to the brain for translation.
Age is a significant factor in this process. While young children have no problem transmitting information, older adults seem to have a more difficult time with this task. Furthermore, the implant requires extensive training that must be administered by a highly skilled professional.
Science and technological advances have come up with a possible answer to this problem. The cochlear implant is a device that can be used by someone with profound hearing loss to gain back sounds they have long since lost or actually hear sounds they have never heard for the very first time.
In order to use the cochlear implant, it must be surgically implanted into the side of the head, behind the ear on the temporal bone. An external part of the device is then worn around the ear, similar to that of a BTE or behind the ear hearing aid. The implant then takes the place of damaged inner ear structures by using vibrations to send signals to the brain for translation into sound.
How Does the Implant Work?
The cochlear implant device is comprised of internal and external pieces. The external part consists of:
- microphone - battery - magnet - radio-frequency antenna that transmits sound - micro-computer that processes sound.
The internal component also referred to as the receiver/stimulator receives signals from the external component which has turned sound into the signal. The internal part is comprised of a micro-computer, radio antenna, electrode array and a magnet. The magnets are of both polarities and are used to hold the external component over the internal part.
The job of the microphone is to pick up environmental sounds and send them to the speech processor or micro-computer to be converted into signals which are then transmitted to the undamaged cochlear fibers. Once there, they are then sent to the electrodes which then send them to the brain for interpretation into sound.
A cochlear implant does not produce sound as we are familiar. Instead, it translates sounds from the environment into signals which are then transmitted to the brain for translation.
Age is a significant factor in this process. While young children have no problem transmitting information, older adults seem to have a more difficult time with this task. Furthermore, the implant requires extensive training that must be administered by a highly skilled professional.
About the Author:
A licensed registered nurse and established writer, Barb Hicks loves to share her knowledge about Causes of Hearing Loss and Hereditary Hearing Loss Diagnosis with others on Clivir.com.
