Cochlear Implants: An Overview

Essay # 1874

Communication
Medical and Health

A look at cochlear implants, their effectiveness and the issues surrounding performing these operations on the deaf.

2,640 words () | 12 sources | 2000

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the invention of cochlear implants, which mimic the functioning of the inner ear. The paper explains how it works, its history, and the effectiveness and problems with the operations. Issues are discussed, including the deaf community's fears that the devices will destroy "deaf culture." Benefits and problems with the implants are looked at as well.

From the Paper:

"An implant mimics the functioning of the cochlea, a seashell-shaped organ in the inner ear lined with 30,000 hair cells. In a normal cochlea, the hair cells turn sound into impulses that are sent to the brain where they are interpreted as speech, music, or other auditory information about the world. In most deaf persons, auditory nerve fibers are intact, but the mechanism to receive the information through the hair cells is absent. Thus, regular hearing aids are ineffective as they typically only boost the amplitude of sound input. The cochlear implant is a wire that replaces a person's missing hair cells, it wraps inside the cochlea and, attached to a small external computer typically worn on the person's belt, also translates sound into impulses sent to a transmitter that relays it back to the implant, that relays it to the brain. At this time, only one implant is being done per person, as developers of the device have not perfected how to coordinate the operation of two implants to provide accurate information relay to the brain."