Cochlear Implant News

Phonological Awareness, Vocabulary, and Reading in Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants

2010-07-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

"Age at cochlear implantation had a significant effect on vocabulary and reading outcomes.." according to a recent article in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research. "There is a benefit of earlier implantation."

doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0139)

The effect of mismatch between electrode assigned frequencies and perceived pitch

2010-06-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

A study from an Italian facility found that a "mismatch between frequencies allocated to electrodes and the pitch perceived on stimulation of the same electrodes could partially account for our subjects' difficulties with speech understanding in noisy conditions."

Bilateral and Unilateral Cochlear Implants and Speech Perception in Noise

2010-06-01T05:11:00.000-07:00

A recent study found that bilateral cochlear implant users showed significantly better ability to understand speech in noisy environments when compared with unilateral cochlear implant users.

A similar recent study compared bimodal and bilateral cochlear implant users. The conclusion: "This research adds to the existing studies that show no significant difference between bimodal and bilateral cochlear implant users".

Second Implant Can Help Adult Localize Sound

2010-05-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

University of Wisconsin research detects a benefit from bilateral cochlear implants.

Cochlear's Acquisition of Sieman's Hearing Aid Division

2010-05-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Cochlear Limited's proposed acquisition of Siemen's hearing aid division discussed here.

Surgical Approach and Postoperative Vertigo

2010-05-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

Researchers at the University of Berlin investigated "the impact of different cochleostomy techniques on vestibular receptor integrity and vertigo after cochlear implantation." Comparing a group of 62 patients who "underwent implantation via an anterior or round window insertion approach" they concluded the "round window approach for electrode insertion should be preferred to decrease the risk of loss of vestibular function and the occurrence of vertigo."

Cochlear implant performance in senior citizens

2010-05-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

A recent study of implanted middle aged and older adults found statistically significant improvements in sentence and single syllable word recognition. The authors conclude that "conclude that age should not be a criterion for deciding who should receive cochlear implants."

Expressive Spoken Language Development in Children with Cochlear Implants

2010-04-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

Researchers assessed expressive spoken grammar skills of young children with cochlear implants and compared them with normally hearing children. Of the children studied who were between the ages of four and six years, 58 percent were "at or above the expressive spoken language grammatical level of normally hearing three year olds after three years of consistent cochlear implant use".

International Cochlear Implant Reliability Group Achieves Agreement on Standards

2010-04-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

The International Consensus Group for Cochlear Implant Reliability Reporting has been working to develop a "consistent and comprehensive classification system for the implanted components of CI systems". The Journal of Otology and Neurotology reports that the Group has reached agreement on the following:

Standard definitions for device failure, survival time, clinical benefit, reduced clinical benefit, and specification were generated. Time intervals for reporting back to implant centers for devices tested to be "out of specification," categorization of explanted devices, the method of cumulative survival reporting, and content of reliability reports to be issued by manufacturers was agreed upon by all members.

Advanced Bionics HiRes 90K Surgical Tool Catalog

2010-02-18T09:23:00.000-08:00

For the DIYers....

Benefits of Advanced Bionics High Resolution Mode

2010-02-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

Researchers in Germany found that compared with conventional Clarion speech coding strategies, "speech perception performance increased significantly when changing... to High Resolution Mode."

The technology of stimulation rates between 1500 and 5000 pulses per second per channel brings a benefit for all users. However, the fastest possible rate does not necessarily lead to best hearing performance in each individual subject. Individual optimization of stimulation rate is recommended.

Characterizing responses from auditory cortex in young people with several years of cochlear implant experience

2008-11-21T11:06:00.000-08:00

Researchers attempted to determine if "cortical responses evoked by a cochlear implant in children who are deaf differ from normal and to characterize these differences in children who achieve good versus fair speech perception outcomes post-implantation."

They found that:

(1) a dominant positive wave in all implant users and (2) a larger than normal negative amplitude peak in users with fair speech perception scores which had similar scalp topography to N1 but did not show the expected changes in amplitude with stimulus frequency.

Late latency-evoked potential responses in children using cochlear implants reflect abnormal and/or immature patterns of cortical activity.

Limitations in auditory skills with a cochlear implant in children may be due to developmental processes in the cortex which are either slow to mature or which mature abnormally.

Nokia HS-67WL Loopset

2008-11-21T10:28:00.000-08:00

Nokia announced the development of a new bluetooth loopset for cochlear implant and hearing aid users:

"Enjoy audio clarity with the Nokia Wireless Loopset. With a T-coil equipped hearing aid or cochlear implant, this practical device can help hearing aid users to enjoy excellent audio quality and handsfree operation. Mobile calls can be accessed wirelessly through the hearing aid via Bluetooth technology and a single button does all the call handling."

The HS-67WL will be released in 2009.

Long-term outcomes of cochlear implantation in the preschool years

2008-11-21T09:33:00.000-08:00

A study of the long term outcomes of preschool implantation at the University of Texas Medical Center found that:

Speech perception scores improved significantly with long-term cochlear implant use.
Average language scores improved at a faster than normal rate.
Reading scores did not quite keep pace with normal development.
Performance in high school was most highly correlated with scores obtained in elementary grades.
Better outcomes were associated with lower PTA cochlear implant threshold, younger age at implantation and higher nonverbal IQ.

The study concluded that early cochlear implantation had a long-term positive impact on auditory and verbal development, but did not result in age-appropriate reading levels in high school for the majority of students.

Cognitive development in children with cochlear implants in Sweden

2008-11-21T09:24:00.000-08:00

In this study, Swedish children with cochlear implants performed at significantly lower levels on the majority of the cognitive tasks.

Evaluation of cochlear implant electrode position after a modified round window insertion

2008-11-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

A study estimated the postoperative cochlear implant electrode position using a modified round window approach to insert primarily into the scala tympani.

"In 78 (95.1%) patients, the array could be located in the scala tympani. In four cases, the position of the electrode was changed intracochlearly from the scala tympani to the scala vestibuli. In three additional cases, the scala vestibuli was inserted intentionally because the tympanic scale was found to be obstructed intraoperatively due to ossification. There were no significant differences between the intraoperative positioning and postoperative localization of the electrode arrays of the two manufacturers."

Automatic and Attentive Processing of Sounds in Cochlear Implant Patients – Electrophysiological Evidence

2008-02-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, an IOS Press publication, recently published an article that concluded that cochlear implant users are "impaired in the preattentive registration of novel auditory events while attentive processing of a designated auditory stream appears intact."

Cochlear Implant Outcomes and Quality of Life in Adults with Prelingual Deafness

2008-02-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

A recent article in Laryngoscope explores quality of life in prelingually deaf adults with cochlear implants and concludes that "with state of the art implants, speech perception and quality of life do improve..."

Production of Consonants by Prelinguistically Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants

2008-02-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

Tne November 2007 issue of Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics includes an article that explores "consonant production following the sensory restoration of audition":

Spontaneous speech productions in 22 prelinguistically deaf French children who received cochlear implants were recorded at 6, 12, and 18 months post-surgery and consonant inventories were derived from both glossable and non-glossable phones using two acquisition criteria. The results showed that children initiated appropriate production of consonants after six months of implant use. Stops and labials were the most frequently produced speech sounds, whereas glides and palatals were still infrequent after 18 months.

Effects of Cochlear Implants on Children's Reading and Academic Achievement

2008-02-11T15:04:00.000-08:00

A recent issue of Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education includes a "critical analysis of empirical studies assessing literacy and other domains of academic achievement among children with cochlear implants."

The article concludes that:

This review, however, reveals that although there are clear benefits of cochlear implantation to achievement in young deaf children, empirical results have been somewhat variable. Examination of the literature with regard to reading achievement suggests that the lack of consistent findings might be the result of frequent failures to control potentially confounding variables such as age of implantation, language skills prior to implantation, reading ability prior to implantation, and consistency of implant use. Studies of academic achievement beyond reading are relatively rare, and the extent to which performance in such domains is mediated by reading abilities or directly influenced by hearing, language, and speech remains unclear.

New Hearing Mechanism Discovered

2008-02-11T14:57:00.000-08:00

MIT scientists have discovered an important new element in understanding human hearing:

MIT Professor Dennis M. Freeman, working with graduate student Roozbeh Ghaffari and research scientist Alexander J. Aranyosi, found that the tectorial membrane, a gelatinous structure inside the cochlea of the ear, is much more important to hearing than previously thought. It can selectively pick up and transmit energy to different parts of the cochlea via a kind of wave that is different from that commonly associated with hearing.

Ghaffari, the lead author of the paper, is in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, as is Freeman. All three researchers are in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics. Freeman is also in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

It has been known for over half a century that inside the cochlea sound waves are translated into up-and-down waves that travel along a structure called the basilar membrane. But the team has now found that a different kind of wave, a traveling wave that moves from side to side, can also carry sound energy. This wave moves along the tectorial membrane, which is situated directly above the sensory hair cells that transmit sounds to the brain. This second wave mechanism is poised to play a crucial role in delivering sound signals to these hair cells.

In short, the ear can mechanically translate sounds into two different kinds of wave motion at once. These waves can interact to excite the hair cells and enhance their sensitivity, "which may help explain how we hear sounds as quiet as whispers," says Aranyosi. The interactions between these two wave mechanisms may be a key part of how we are able to hear with such fidelity - for example, knowing when a single instrument in an orchestra is out of tune.

"We know the ear is enormously sensitive" in its ability to discriminate between different kinds of sound, Freeman says. "We don't know the mechanism that lets it do that." The new work has revealed "a whole new mechanism that nobody had thought of. It's really a very different way of looking at things."

Speech Intelligibility in Cochlear Implant Simulations

2008-02-11T14:48:00.000-08:00

A recent article in the Acoustical Society of America Digitial Library describes an experiment to simulate cochlear implant processing in normal hearing listeners:

Channel vocoders using either tone or band-limited noise carriers have been used in experiments to simulate cochlear implant processing in normal-hearing listeners.

Imitative Production of Rising Speech Intonation in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients

2008-02-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

An article in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearingexplains that:

Pediatric cochlear implant recipients did not consistently use appropriate intonation contours when imitating a yes–no question. Acoustic properties of speech intonation produced by these individuals were discernible among utterances of different intonation contour types according to normal hearing listeners' perceptual judgments.

The findings delineated the perceptual and acoustic characteristics of speech intonation imitated by prelingually deafened children and young adults with a CI. Future studies should address whether the degraded signals these individuals perceive via a CI contribute to their difficulties with speech intonation production.

Shattered Nerves

2007-12-06T15:14:00.000-08:00

A layman's explanation of the science of neuroprosthetics, including cochlear implants.

Infectious Complications in Pediatric Cochlear Implants

2007-12-06T14:56:00.000-08:00

A review of the sources of infections in pediatric cochlear implant users.

Cochlear Implant Users at Gallaudet

2007-12-06T14:52:00.000-08:00

Cochlear implant users make up 6% of all students at Gallaudet University in the Fall 2007 semester. (Scroll down.)

Seeking a Less Expense Cochlear Implant

2007-12-06T14:41:00.000-08:00

India's former president APJ Abdul Kalam, fondly known as a people’s president, is seeking to develop a more cost effective cochlear implant through India's Defence Research and Development Organisation.

Cochlear Inc. a Likely Takeover Candidate

2007-12-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Cochlear makes sense as a takeover target....

Comparative Pitch Ranking of Complex Tones

2007-12-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

Normally hearing participants obtained "significantly higher mean scores" compared with cochlear implant users on two experiments ranking complex tones by pitch.

Skin Flap Thickness in Cochlear Implant Patients

2007-11-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

An article in Cochlear Implants International discusses various aspects of skin flap thickness.

FM Detection with Simultaneous AM by Cochlear Implant Users

2007-11-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

A study published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America investigated the abilities of CI users to detect FM with simultaneous amplitude modulation and found that FM and AM in CI partly share a common loudness-based coding mechanism and the feasibility of “FM+AM” strategies for CI speech processing may be limited.

Auditory Brainstem Activity and Bilateral Cochlear Implant Use

2007-11-19T08:48:00.000-08:00

Latency in auditory brainstem response tended to resolve in children implanted <3 years of age but not in children implanted at older ages with long delays between implants.

Latency differences were projected to persist for longer periods in children with long delays between implants compared with children with short delays.

Preverbal Communication of Cochlear Implant Children

2007-11-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

A recent article in International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology reached some tentative findings:

[I]n deaf implanted children under 1 year of age, some preverbal communication behaviors are developing to an extent (although at a somewhat lower level) not significantly different from those of age-matched normally hearing children.

Combined Electric and Contralateral Acoustic Hearing

2007-11-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

An article in the Journal of Speech and Language Research finds that:

A full-insertion cochlear implant provides better speech understanding than bilateral, low-frequency residual hearing. The combination of an implant and contralateral acoustic hearing yields comparable performance to that of patients with a partially inserted implant and bilateral, low-frequency acoustic hearing. These data suggest that a full-insertion cochlear implant is a viable treatment option for patients with low-frequency residual hearing.

Cochlear Implant Fixation in Children Using Periosteal Sutures

2007-11-13T14:59:00.000-08:00

Article describes a simple technique for implant receiver/stimulator (ICS) fixation that uses a seat for the cochlear implant device and suture fixation through the native cranial periosteum.

Michael Chorost Visits Burning Man

2007-11-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

....being visited by Michael Chorost, author of Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human - one of the more inspirational books I have read.

Peer Relationships of Children With Cochlear Implants

2007-10-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

A recent issue of Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education examines Peer Relationships of Children With Cochlear Implants.

Psychological Status and Speech Perception Outcomes in Adolescent Cochlear Implant Users

2007-10-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

A study conducted at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey found that:

The majority of adolescents, in this study, achieved varying degrees of open-set speech recognition and made greater gains than their previous auditory experience with hearing aids. Also, the indirect positive effects of early identification-amplification, communication therapy and counseling programs on their personal well-being is clearly observed from the outcomes of their state and trait anxiety scores. As a result of correlating the trait and state anxiety levels with pre- and post-implant speech perception skills, a significant negative correlation was expected. However, no statistical correlation was found between speech perception skills and the psychological outcomes. This result may be the indicator of the positive effect of the early habilitation-parental support and cochlear implant on the quality of life as the adolescents involved in this study were developmentally and audiologically ready for implantation.

Phonological Awareness, Vocabulary, and Word Reading in Children With Cochlear Implants

2007-10-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

A recent issue of The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education includes an article on the phonological awareness, vocabulary and word reading abilities of cochlear implanted children.

The phonological awareness, vocabulary, and word reading abilities of 19 children with cochlear implants were assessed. Nine children had an implant early and 10 had an implant later. As a group, the children fitted early had better performance outcomes on PA, vocabulary, and reading compared to hearing benchmark groups.

Bone Anchored Cochlear Stimulator

2007-09-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

Dr. Sam Marzo of Loyola University Medical Center surgically implanted a bone-anchored cochlear stimulator that delivers sound to the inner ear by bone conduction.

"People unable to hear as a result of chronic ear inflammation or drainage can benefit from this new therapy," said Marzo, who also serves as program director of the Hearing and Balance Center at Loyola's Oakbrook Terrace Medical Center, One South Summit Ave, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. "The device will work for people who do not have a functioning ear canal."

Michael Chorost on Laser Based Implants

2007-09-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

[scroll down]

"As part of a project funded by the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), Claus-Peter Richter and his colleagues at Northwestern have demonstrated that they can control firing rates in the auditory nerve of animals using infrared laser radiation."

Docuweek Question and Answer with Irene Brodsky

2007-09-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

Docuweek Question and Answer with Irene Taylor Brodsky, director of Hear and Now.

Q: What inspired you to make Hear and Now?

ITB: After being deaf for 65 years, my parents always told me they "didn't have time to learn to hear." So, it never occurred to me that they would actually try out cochlear implants. When they told me--20 years after the device was first invented--that they wanted to give sound a go, I knew it would be an epic experiment. I made the film to figure out their intentions as much as to document them.

Iowa Study on Localization Ability in Adult Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users

2007-09-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

A University of Iowa study concludes that sequential bilateral implants can be beneficial even after many years of monaural use and even with very different cochlear implants. Speech perception and localization with adults with bilateral sequential cochlear implants.

Auditory Stem Implant for a New Zealand Child

2007-07-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

Jorja Steele became the first child to receive an auditory stem implant in Australia, after cochlear implants provided no benefit. She is from New Zealand.

Neurosurgeons from three Melbourne hospitals, aided by a team of audiologists, implanted the device - a three-by-six-millimetres pad of electrodes that stimulates hearing pathways in the brain - during a four-hour operation.

Nucleus 22 and 24 Users Needed for Study

2007-07-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

Brian Kelly, a graduate of Syracuse University in biomedical engineering, and a bilateral cochlear implant user is seeking subjects for his research project.

He's looking for adult research subjects who have had cochlear implants for at least six months and are using a Nucleus-22 or Nucleus-24 device. Subjects will participate in various experiments that study sound perception "in order to help us better understand how implants interact with the brain to encode sound, and how to improve implant functioning,"

Cochlear Corporation Labor Dispute

2007-07-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

Cochlear Corporation is involved in a labor dispute with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union at its Sydney manufacturing facility.

Neuroplasticity and Cochlear Implants

2007-07-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Researchers have found that cochlear implants may support the restoration of the brain's auditory pathways even after many years of deafness.

The results imply that the brain can reorganize sound processing centers or press into service latent ones based on sound stimulation. Jeanne Guiraud, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Lyon, Edouard Herriot University Hospital, and Advanced Bionics, a firm that makes cochlear implants, worked with deaf subjects from 16 to 74 years old and found that younger subjects and those with a shorter history of deafness showed changes that mirrored patterns in people with normal hearing more closely.

"The results imply a restoration to some extent of the normal organization through the use of the cochlear implant," says Manuel Don, PhD, of the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. "They also claim to find ties between the degree of restored organization and a hearing task. Such ties are of enormous importance in evaluating cochlear implant benefits."

Canadian Parents Sue Government for Educational Support in Private Schools

2007-06-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

A group of parents is planning to launch a lawsuit against the Ontario government, alleging it is discriminating against their children by not funding supports for students with certain disabilities who attend private religious schools.

New Zealand Taxes Cover Cradle to School Support

2007-06-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

New Zealand's Labour party government is delivering a full program of support for children with hearing loss, including screening of newborns, providing cochlear implants, and extra support in school, says Education Minister Steve Maharey and Health Minister Pete Hodgson.

Royal National Institute for the Deaf Makes the Case for Affordable Cochlear Implants

2007-06-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Royal National Institute for the Deaf says that the high cost of cochlear implants is a major limiting factor in the number of people who have received benefits from these medical devices.

New research by RNID, the national charity representing 9 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, shows that millions of deaf people in Europe and the United States are unable to gain access to technology that could help them hear because it is too expensive.

Dr Ralph Holme, Head of Biomedical Research at RNID, says: "There is a gap in the market for a medical device company to produce a low-cost implant by using more cost-efficient manufacturing practices. Our market research shows that such a device would enjoy considerable commercial success whilst benefiting people who may not have had access to it previously."

Progress on Auditory Nerve Implants

2007-06-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

A new study from the University of Michigan's Kresge Hearing Research Institute describes an ultra-thin electronic hearing device that can be attached directly to the auditory nerve and may offer a superior alternative to cochlear implants. Researchers have tested the new intraneural implant in cats showing that it is capable of transmitting a wide range of sounds to the brain.

"In nearly every measure, these work better than cochlear implants," said U-M researcher John C. Middlebrooks.

Studies of the electrodes in humans are about five to 10 years away, he said.

Cochlear Implant Restore Hearing for Patient with von Hippel - Landau Disease

2007-06-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

Doctors at NIH and Georgetown University Medical Center used a cochlear implant for the first time to restore hearing in a patient with von-Hippel - Landau disease. A case report appears in a recent issue of Otology and Neurotology.

Advanced Bionics Forms Partnership in Southeast Asia

2007-06-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

Advanced Bionics Corporation and The Hearing Solution Group, Southeast Asia's largest hearing health care provider, announce the formation of a partnership.

Through this mutual agreement, The Hearing Solution Group will advocate Advanced Bionics' cochlear implant devices, helping to further Advanced Bionics' commitment to providing superior service and support for its users throughout Southeast Asia.

The Hearing Solution Group is the largest hearing health care provider in Southeast Asia, serving Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. The organization is renowned for providing a spectrum of hearing health care - from counseling to basic and comprehensive audiological assessments to a full range of hearing devices, habilitation and rehabilitation, and service.

Louisiana Declares October Cochlear Implant Awareness Month

2007-06-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

The Louisiana state senate proclaims October 2007 as Cochlear Implant Awareness Month. The press release claims that this is the first such official proclamation.

Graham Clark Wiins German Neuroscience Award

2007-05-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

Graham Clark, has been awarded Germany's highest accolade in neuroscience, the 2007 Klaus Joachim Zulch prize, for his research into neuroscience and cochlear implants. He shared the prize with Dr John Donoghue who leads the brain science program at Brown University.

Michael Chorost at MIT Conference

2007-05-26T05:28:00.000-07:00

Michael Chorost spoke about his experiences as a cochlear implant user at MIT's Media Lab conference, "H2.0: New Minds, New Bodies, New Identities," the lab's May 9 symposium that showed how addressing the challenges posed by disabilities can broaden the scope of human ability.

Keck Futures Initiative Grant to Study Cochlear Implant Children

2007-05-26T05:05:00.000-07:00

The National Academy of Sciences announced that Phillip M. Gilley, a postdoctoral researcher in University of Colorado - Boulder's speech, language and hearing sciences department, and Arizona State University collaborator Michael F. Dorman, are one of 16 projects selected to receive the highly competitive Keck Futures Initiative grants, which support interdisciplinary research on "smart" prosthetics such as cochlear hearing implants. They aim to develop clinically useful and less invasive ways of studying the brain activity of children who wear cochlear implants.

Utah State University Enhances Hearing Impaired Program

2007-04-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

This fall, USU will unveil Sound Beginnings of Cache Valley a $3 million initiative that will have an auditory-oral focus, concentrating on developing speaking skills rather than sign language.

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education department head Beth Foley said the program will provide an alternative for deaf children and their families, not replace the department's sign language training program.

. . .

"Parents can, and should, be able to choose how they want to communicate with their children," Houston continued. "The fact is that 95 percent of all newborns with permanent hearing loss are born to hearing parents, and with all of the advances in the field, most of these parents want to communicate via spoken language. Many parents are now choosing to get their children cochlear implants, and these children need intensive follow-up training and services to take full advantage of this technology."

University of York Scientist Join Deafness Research UK

2007-04-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

Deafness Research UK has appointed Professor Quentin Summerfield to be its new chief research adviser.

According to Professor Summerfield:

"Hearing research is entering a very exciting period -- never before have there been so many promising lines of research which could lead to new therapies, treatments, or even cures that will transform the lives of millions of sufferers.

Cochlear Implants in Third World Countries

2007-04-29T03:03:00.000-07:00

Dr. Muazz Tarabichi, an American Board Certified Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist at the American Hospital Dubai spoke at a Deafness Week Seminar organised jointly by the College of Information Technology, University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) and the American Hospital in Dubai.

While describing Cochlear Implantation (CI) as 'one of the most successful, life transforming, and expensive intervention in medicine today,' Dr Tarabichi said the different CI manufacturers are unable to cater to the needs of Third World countries.

'A CI device consisting of an internal and external apparatus costs approximately US$30,000 to $40,000. A software engineer in India, for example, who could in all likelihood be involved in programming such a device, would have to dedicate his entire income for six years just for the cost of the device, while a teacher would have to dedicate his earnings for 24 years.'

Neuralplasticity Blog

2007-04-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

Michael Merzenich, the author of article Cochlear Implant News highlighted in February

(Advances in Neural Prostheses)

has a blog worth visiting.

New Adult Cochlear Implant Program in the UK

2007-04-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

Health and Social Services Minister announces £750,000 cochlear implant program.

Medtronic Considers Cochlear Corporation Takeover

2007-04-15T06:32:00.000-07:00

A research note from ABN AMRO suggests that a Cochlear Corporation could be an "attractive takeover candidate" for Medtronic Inc., which is currently seeking acquisitions.

Robotic Micro-Drill for Cochlear Implant Surgery

2007-04-15T05:40:00.000-07:00

A surgical drilling robot, developed at the Aston University is expected to lead to improved hearing for cochlear implant patients.

It has been tested on three human patients all with successful outcomes. It drills a perfect hole, the perfect size, in the perfect place and to a perfect depth.

Study of Hearing Speech in Noise

2007-03-25T16:04:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

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

Hear and Now to be shown at Rochester Institute of Technology

2007-03-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

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

2007-03-02T16:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Cochlear Corporation Announces Graeme Clark Scholarships

2007-02-22T23:51:00.000-08:00

Cochlear Corporation announced the winners of the fifth annual Graeme Clark Cochlear Scholarship, an award that recognizes the achievements of the company's cochlear implant recipients.

Fallout from Boston Scientifics Buyout of Advanced Bionics

2007-02-18T04:00:00.000-08:00

The Boston Globe has a lengthy article about the tumult that followed Boston Scientific's 2004 purchase of Advanced Bionics. [Free registration required.]

Update: Alfred Mann wins a round in federal court, requests recission of merger with BSX.

On Tuesday, New York federal judge Alvin Hellerstein agreed with Mann and issued an injunction temporarily blocking Boston Scientific from removing Mann from his position. He said the company must first pursue the lengthy dispute resolution process outlined in the original merger contract.

....

After Hellerstein issued his opinion, attorneys for Mann asked the judge to consider a new option: Scrapping the merger agreement.
Because the two parties "will likely be locked in battle for years," the request said, the judge should consider voiding the deal -- a legal measure called rescission.

Advances in Neural Prostheses

2007-02-18T03:39:00.000-08:00

An interesting article about developments in neural prostheses, including cochlear implants.

Cochlear Implant May Restore Balance

2007-02-18T03:26:00.000-08:00

After developing a successful models in animals, Charles Santini, a scientist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, is designing a vestibular implant to restore the vestibular-ocular reflex, in humans.

Cochlear implants use a microphone and processor to code sound and send it directly to the cochlear nerve via electrodes implanted in the inner ear. They completely bypass the dead hair cells. Similarly, a vestibular implant uses tiny gyroscopic sensors to measure head movement and sends that information straight to the vestibular nerve using electrodes.

Wisconsin Study Shows Benefits of Bilateral Cochlear Implants

2007-02-18T03:12:00.000-08:00

The study, released February 13th, made two important points:

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Although variability existed among the children, the study indicates that most did develop the ability to locate speech and other sounds more accurately when using two cochlear implants versus one. This capability also increased with experience.

"We're now seeing that the ability to localize sounds takes time to emerge," says Litovsky. "What seems to get better is the integration of the information from the two ears in the brain."

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Another crucial question is whether children should receive both implants simultaneously, at the same time, or sequentially, at different times, she says. The study's results have implications here, as well.

"The children we're looking at received their implants sequentially," says Litovsky, "and we think that their brains took a very long time to combine the inputs from the two ears." Yet, the fact they learned to do so points to the brain's adaptability, or "plasticity," she adds. "It reveals that the brain is still open to input from an ear that was deaf for a very long time."

Cochlear Corporation Reports Increased Earnings

2007-02-18T02:52:00.000-08:00

Cochlear Corporation "achieved record revenue of $276.1 million in the six months to December 31, and a 31 per cent increase in sales to $240.3 million."

The 25-year-old company holds 70 per cent of the hearing implants market and said a main contributor to the first half result was sales of a newly launched backwards compatible Nucleus Freedom Speech Processor.

Quality Adjusted Life Years and Cochlear Implants

2007-02-05T10:46:00.000-08:00

The My Son Tom blog has an interesting discussion of QALY Quality Adjusted Life Years and how that concept impacts the decision of a government health service to pay for unilateral and bilateral cochlear implants.

[QALY] is an attempt to measure the impact of medical interventions on both the quantity and quality of life resulting from said intervention. By throwing into the equation the cost of the interventions, the 'Powers That Decide Such Things' can make informed choices about which procedures to fund and to whom, based on their cost-effectiveness...

Education Support for Children with Cochlear Implants on Staten Island

2007-02-05T02:31:00.000-08:00

An article in the Staten Island Advance describes the educational support currently available for children with cochlear implants.

Education officials acknowledge that children with cochlear implants who receive support services early on have a high likelihood of not requiring those services by the time they're in kindergarten, allowing them to join their normally hearing peers in general education classes.

Data From Experimental Hybrid Cochlear Implant Study

2007-02-01T00:32:00.000-08:00

An article in the January 29 Seattle Post-Intelligencer provides clinical data about the FDA approved study of hybrid cochlear implants. Developed at the University of Iowa, the hybrid cochlear implant is designed to restore hearing loss without destroying residual hearing.

Of the 90 patients implanted with the new device, three have been removed after patients lost hearing between three months to two years after surgery and weren't happy with the results, Gantz said. Six patients lost hearing, but are using hearing aids with the implant and still hear better than they did before surgery, he said. In most patients, the surgery has been successful, with a patient's average word understanding increasing from 20 percent to more than 70 percent after having the implant for a year.

Graeme Clark Developing Spinal Implant

2007-02-01T00:20:00.000-08:00

Cochlear implant pioneer Graeme Clark's latest project is a spinal implant to solve spinal cord injuries.

Using "smart plastics", the team is developing an implant that would be surgically inserted into the damaged area of a patient's spinal cord. "Smart plastics" conduct electricity and are combined with carbon nanotubes - thousands of microscopic fibres that touch nerve endings. The implant receives radio waves through the skin from a transmitter pack worn outside the body on the patient's back. The electrical stimulus received by the implant allows it to release nerve growth hormones that encourage damaged spinal nerves to regrow and eventually reconnect with other nerves.

Omaha Girl Dies of Menigitis

2007-02-01T00:14:00.000-08:00

A seven year old Omaha, Nebraska girl with a cochlear implant died over the weekend from bacterial meningitis. She had not been vaccinated.

Louisville School to Offer Program

2007-01-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

Kentucky's Heuser Hearing Institute is opening its doors to hearing children with their new Louisville Language Academy. Louisville Language Academy, a preschool for 2-, 3- and 4-year-old hearing children, will help improve the communication skills of hearing impaired students, including those with cochlear implants, by providing side-by-side learning opportunities in music, arts and crafts.

Cochlear Implant Film Wins Award at Sundance

2007-01-28T07:57:00.000-08:00

"Hear and Now" won the audience award for best documentary at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Al Mann Honored in Los Angeles

2007-01-26T02:38:00.000-08:00

Al Mann, founder of Advanced Bionics, the only North America based cochlear implant maker, was honored at the Los Angeles Venture Association's 4th Annual LAVA Awards Dinner on Thursday, January 18, at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Bone-Anchored Hearing Aids

2007-01-25T17:19:00.000-08:00

An article in the January 2007 issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology--Head & Neck Surgery reports that outcomes following surgically implanted hearing aids that are anchored to bone appear comparable for children younger than 5 years and those older than 5 years.

Cochlear Implant Documentary at Sundance Film Festival

2007-01-17T11:13:00.000-08:00

Hear and Now, a documentary about a 65 year old couple who have cochlear implant surgery will be shown at this year's Sundance Film Festival:

First time American filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky will travel to Park City with her doc "Hear and Now," which Sundance calls "a magical and deeply moving story of two people who embark on an extraordinary journey from silence to sound." After 65 years of silence, Paul and Sally Taylor decide to get cochlear implant surgery and experience something that has been absent all their lives--the realm of sound. Brodsky captures her deaf parents' complex decision to undergo the risky and controversial procedure, which is the only one that actually restores a sense. "Hear and Now" will screen in the Independent Film Competition: Documentary section at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival.

Audiologist Develops a Wireless MP3 Player for Cochlear Implants

2007-01-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

Sandy Mintz, an audiologist with medical device company Advanced Bionics, is working with Samsung to develop a wireless system that will link an MP3 player to a cochlear implant.

Medicaid Covers Bilateral Cochlear Implant

2007-01-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

In what the article describes as a landmark case, an Oklahoma couple won an appeal for Medicaid coverage of a bilateral implant for their child.

Listen Foundation Provides Auditory-Verbal Therapy

2006-12-26T07:14:00.000-08:00

The Listen Foundation near Denver is holding its annual 'non-event' fund drive. The Foundation provides auditory-verbal therapy for cochlear implanted children who could not otherwise afford it.

Artist Depicts Husband's Response to Cochlear Implant

2006-12-26T03:14:00.000-08:00

Hooked Up, a landscape of hovering metallic rings by artist Bing Thayer interprets her husband's experience with new sounds.

New Research on Cochlear Implant Performance in Noise

2006-12-21T09:38:00.000-08:00

UC Irvine has published an interesting look at cochlear implant performance in noise with the aid of a directional microphone and noise reduction algorithm.

India Corporations Donate Cochlear Implant Surgery

2006-12-21T01:38:00.000-08:00

150 - 200 cochlear implant operations are performed each year in India. Corporations are trying to increase that number.

Hybrid Cochlear Implant for Partial Hearing Loss

2006-12-20T01:30:00.000-08:00

An experimental cochlear implant is designed to relieve partial hearing loss.

Researchers Examine CI Difficulty With Tonal Language

2006-12-20T01:11:00.000-08:00

Researchers at University of California Irvine study the reason cochlear implant users have difficulty understanding spoken Mandarin language.

Cochlear Limited Purchases Supplier

2006-12-20T00:55:00.000-08:00

Cochlear Limited buys the cochlear implant related inventory and equipment of supplier Crystalaid.

6 Month Old Recieves Bilateral Implants

2006-12-19T17:14:00.000-08:00

A 6 month old is believed to be the youngest child to receive a cochlear implant in Illinois.