Australian Inventions Codexery

Cochlear implant

Neuroprosthesis that restores sound perception via direct auditory nerve stimulation.

Last updated

The device bypasses damaged ear portions and directly stimulates the auditory nerve, sending signals that the brain recognizes as sound.[1] An implant does not restore normal hearing.[1] For individuals with moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss, a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis called a cochlear implant can provide sound perception.[2]

Quick Facts

First implant year
1957
Field
Neuroprosthetics, otology
Key components
External sound processor and internal electrode array

Facts from the source article.

How it changed

André Djourno and Charles Eyriès invented the original cochlear implant in 1957, using a single-channel design.[3] Single-channel implants were of limited usefulness because they could not stimulate different cochlear areas to differentiate frequencies needed for speech.[4] Patients were first implanted with the Hochmair and Clark inventions in December 1977 and August 1978, respectively.[5][6] By the middle of 2013, more than 320,000 individuals were using cochlear implants.[5][6]

As of December 2019, approximately 736,900 registered devices had been implanted worldwide.[1] In 1961, William House created a cochlear implant, and three years later, in 1964, a single-channel electrode was placed in a patient by Blair Simmons and Robert L. White at Stanford University.[4] Two separate teams working independently—one headed by Graeme Clark in Australia and the other by Ingeborg Hochmair and Erwin Hochmair in Austria—developed the modern multi-channel cochlear implant.[7] The Nucleus device, which commercialized Clark's multi-channel design and was produced by Cochlear Limited, gained FDA approval in 1985 as the first multi-channel cochlear implant to receive such authorization.[8]

What the maker and period sources say

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders states that a cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.[1] The same source notes that the implant consists of an external portion behind the ear and a surgically placed internal portion, with a microphone that picks up sound from the environment.[1] The Lasker Foundation reports that the 2013 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award honored three scientists who developed the modern cochlear implant.[5][6] The Space Foundation states that NASA engineer Adam Kissiah patented technology in 1977 that has been used in digital implantable hearing aids.[9]

References

  1. "Cochlear Implants (No. 11-4798)", National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 2013-11-01. facts only, no text reused. nidcd.nih.gov
  2. Wikipedia, "Cochlear implant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "NCD - Cochlear Implantation (50.3)", Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; "Cochlear Implants", NIDCD, 24 March 2021; "Cochlear Implants", NIDCD, 24 March 2021; "Systematic Review of Auditory Training in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients", Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, May 2019, p. 1574–1593; "Efficacy of individual computer-based auditory training for people with hearing loss: a systematic review of the evidence", PLOS ONE, 2013-05-10; "Efficacy of individual auditory training in adults: a systematic revi en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Cochlear implant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Svirsky, "Cochlear implants and electronic hearing", Physics Today, August 2017, p. 52–58 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Cochlear implant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dr. William F. House, Inventor of Pioneering Ear-Implant Device, Dies at 89", The New York Times, December 15, 2012; "The early history of the cochlear implant: a retrospective", JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, May 2013, p. 446–453; "The multi-channel cochlear implant: past, present and future perspectives", Cochlear Implants International, 2009, p. 2–13 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. "2013 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award: Modern cochlear implant", The Lasker Foundation. facts only, no text reused. laskerfoundation.org
  6. "Modern cochlear implant – 2013 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award", Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, 2013. facts only, no text reused. laskerfoundation.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Cochlear implant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "2013 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award: Modern cochlear implant", The Lasker Foundation (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Cochlear implant" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The importance of being flexible"; Eshraghi, "The cochlear implant: historical aspects and future prospects", The Anatomical Record, 2012, p. 1967–1980; "Modern cochlear implant – 2013 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award", Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, 2013; "Cochlear implant and accessories made by Nucleus Ltd", Powerhouse Museum; Zeng, "Celebrating the one millionth cochlear implant", JASA Express Letters, 2022, p. 077201 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Space Technology Hall of Fame: Cochlear Implant", Space Foundation. facts only, no text reused. spacefoundation.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Cochlear implant (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

More in Australian inventions

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →