Study of Hearing Speech in Noise

Scientists in Great Britain show how the brain makes sense of speech in noisy environments:

In an ordinary setting, where background noise is minimal and a person's speech is clear, it is mainly the left and right temporal lobes that are involved in interpreting speech. However, the researchers have found that when hearing is impaired by background noise, other regions of the brain are engaged, such as the angular gyrus, the area of the brain also responsible for verbal working memory -- but only when the sentence is predictable.

The study was intended to simulate the everyday experience of people who rely on cochlear implants.....

Mann Foundation Donates $100 Million to Purdue

Alfred Mann is one of the giants of biotechnology and cochlear implant development.

The Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering has announced a $100 million gift to endow an Alfred Mann Institute at Purdue University.

The university-based institute is designed to enable the commercialization of innovative biomedical technologies that improve human health...

The $100 million endowment is the largest single endowment ever created for Purdue.

Cochlear Corporation's Growth Rate

An interesting article in The Australian about Cochlear Corporation's growth projections.

Hear and Now to be shown at Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester native Irene Taylor Brodsky will attend a showing of Hear and Now on June 14 at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The film won the audience choice award at this year's Sundance film festival.

An intimate memoir, Hear and Now tells the story of Taylor Brodsky’s deaf parents, Paul and Sally Taylor, and their decision at the age of 65 to undergo risky cochlear implant surgery, a procedure that could give them the ability to hear. The film follows their complicated journey from a comfortable world of silence to a new and profoundly challenging world of sound.

The June 14 screening has special meaning to Taylor Brodsky because the proceeds from this event will benefit a scholarship in her parents’ honor to support deaf and hard-of-hearing film and animation students at RIT.

FWIW, netflix.com lists Hear and Now with no release date.

Cochlear Implant Invented in France, 50 Years Ago

According to this English language article in French newspaper, Metro International, France is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the invention of the cochlear implant. No detail are provided.

The National Day of Hearing in France yesterday included an important message about the cochlear implant, a French hearing invention that celebrates its 50th year.

Brief Michael Chorost Article in the San Francisco Chronicle

The article, Michael Chorost and his technological interface with the world, summarizes many of the points he makes in his book Rebuilt.

Graeme Clark at this year's Cochlear Celebration

Clark became interested in helping deaf people when, as a child, he saw his own severely hard-of-hearing father struggle in his career as a pharmacist and in his family life. "These were burnt in my memory, the difficulties, and I wanted to be an ear doctor at the age of 10 or 11," Clark said.

Illinois State University Program for Cochlear Implant Kids

Illinois State University announced Tuesday that the university has received a $778,941 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to train teachers, speech pathologists and audiologists throughout Illinois on how to work with children who have cochlear implants.

The grant will bring together 70 teachers and therapists from throughout Illinois who work with hearing impaired children from birth to age three, Lartz said. The teachers and therapists will learn how to work with the children and their families who want to use spoken language in addition to sign language, she said.

At the two Illinois locations where cochlear implant surgery takes place — Carle and Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago — teachers will be allowed to observe surgeries and therapy.