Implant improves speech in deaf - cochlear implant

Nutrition Health Review, Fall, 1989

Implant Improves Speech in Deaf

SAN FRANCISCO, CA. -- A new eight-channel cochlear implant is expected to improve the ability of totally deaf persons with inner ear damage to understand human speech.

Like the earlier four-channel device, the eight-channel model bypasses damaged hair cells lining the inner ear -- which normally transmit sound as electrical impulses to the auditory nerve -- and stimulate that nerve directly.

Both implants consist of a receiver and electrodes that are surgically implanted beneath the skin behind the ear, and an external speech processor usually worn at the belt or in a pocket.

But the eight-channel implant can present more detailed signals from sounds than the older model, enabling the patient to hear more of the tone or pitch qualities of normal speech. Developers of the devices, from the University of California at San Francisco, reported that clinical trials of the new implants are being conducted.