Cochlear implants are complicated small electronic devices, which help in providing the sound sensation to the individuals who suffer from severe deafness. A cochlear implant is usually formed of 2 parts; an external part which is fitted behind the affected ear, and another part which is implanted or inserted surgically beneath the skin.
Furthermore, this implanted part is formed of three portions:
- A sensitive microphone to collect sounds from the surrounding environment.
- A speech processor to arrange the collected sounds by the microphone.
- A transmitter /receiver to receive different sound signals from the speech processor and a stimulator to change these signals into definite electrical impulses.
- An area of electrodes, which consists of a collection of electrodes that gather the electrical impulses from the stimulator, and transmit them to various regions of hearing (auditory) nerve.
Generally speaking, a cochlear implant can’t replace the normal auditory system, but, it can give a person suffering from hearing loss a simulation of the sounds occurring in the surroundings, and eventually assist him/her to recognize speech.
Cochlear implants and hearing aids (devices) are totally two different things. For clarification, a hearing aid works by magnifying different sounds, so the damaged ears will be capable of detecting them easily. While a cochlear implant bypasses the impaired parts of the ear and stimulates the acoustic nerve directly, then the signals produced by the implant will be transferred from the acoustic nerve to the cortex of the brain, which will identify these signals as sounds. Hearing by using cochlear implants is definitely unlike the normal hearing process, besides, it needs some time to be learned or relearned. Nevertheless, this type of surgically implanted hearing devices allows a lot of deaf or extremely “ hard to hear” people to understand the warning signals, recognize different surrounding sounds, and make a conversation with someone else.
On December 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that more than 215,000 persons worldwide have received cochlear implants. Cochlear implants as well as intensive post-operative treatment are very important to help young kids to learn speech and language skills. Young children are prepared to receive cochlear implants at the age of 2-6 years old. FDA, in 2000, had reduced the eligibility age for receiving cochlear implants to one year old.
