“A more sound solution; An experimental ‘hybrid’ device may give many with partial hearing loss the extra boost they need. It’s a new variation on the cochlear implant.”
Author: Regina Nuzzo
Publication: Los Angeles Times
Date: December 2006
In this article, Regina Nuzzo writes about a promising new technology that is a modification on the original cochlear implant. These new implants are referred to as hybrids because they allow the wearer to use their own residual hearing along with the assistance of an implant. At the writing of the article, about 80 hybrid implants had been done, beginning as early as 1999, although clinical tests were still underway. The structure of the device is not much different than the regular model for cochlear implants. However, the hybrid device sounds a lot like the original single-channel cochlear implants: One of the selling points of the hybrid is its thinner and shorter electrode (10 as opposed to 28 millimeters), so implantation does less damage to the cochlea. Sound familiar? I am curious whether the makers of the hybrid implant have any connection to the supporters of the single-channel implants from the 1990’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same people resurfacing, looking to make a profit off of the same idea again.
However, the hybrid implant is also being used to replace a particular part of hearing loss that single-channel proponents were not advocating in the 1990’s: Hybrids are implanted specifically to replace high-frequency hearing loss. Although some high-frequency hearing loss is a natural part of the aging process, rapid loss of high-pitched hearing, called “ski-slope” loss, is abnormal. The hybrid implant only picks up high frequency sound waves, so it can only help patients with “ski-slope” hearing loss. This has a different effect on hearing speech than one might expect. It is not a matter of hearing higher-pitched voices. Instead, the hybrid cochlear implant helps with hearing certain consonant sounds like “shh” and “sss”, which are a higher frequency than vowel sounds. With this change, speech recognition is vastly improved for people with “ski-slope” hearing loss, clearing up the “muddiness” of speech for people with high-frequency hearing loss.
The article also includes an information box with several other upcoming hearing aid technologies. These little blurbs are tantalizing: they briefly describe innovations such as hearing aids which selectively amplify sounds with little distortion (these are likely to be speech or music, according to the article) and tune down sounds with greater distortion (such as engines and other background noise). Also described are responsive microphones, which pick up noise from directly in front of the wearer in a loud setting and from all around the wearer in a quiet setting, and hearing aides with anti-whining technology that transmits a sound that cancels out any whining sound the hearing aide may make if it is not fit tightly into the ear. Hearing aide technology is still a growing, active field. There is much on the horizon and in use, and we have already come a great way in the field.
A closer look at a cochlear implant
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