The Long Road to Today’s Cochlear Implant
spectrum.ieee.org
spectrum.ieee.org
He received a cochlear implant and extensive speech therapy throughout his early education, but since he had only just begun speaking when he lost his hearing it was an arduous struggle for him. He clearly was more comfortable among the deaf, and ultimately attended high school and college for deaf/blind students rather than integrating into normal schools. His wife is (congenitally) deaf, as are most of his friends, and he hasn’t turned on his cochlear implant in years.
One of his friends is also a childhood cochlear implant recipient, and he has reached the point where you almost can’t tell that he has a hearing problem. I’ve had some interesting conversations with him about the cultural divide, since he is able to bridge it, and in the process gained a greater appreciation for the challenges my brother has faced. At the very least, I can understand why he would choose to turn off his implant despite all the time and money spent to support it in the past.
edit: as an interesting coda, my brother and his wife just welcomed their first child, and she has normal hearing. This has prompted him to look into options for turning his implant back on and restarting speech therapy.
For unknown reasons my normal hearing deteriorated rapidly in my late 30s to the point where my right ear became "profoundly deaf". (My left ear only hears up to 1500 Hz or so.) I got the implant in my right ear in late 2015 and it was literally life changing.
With the combination of the implant and the residual low frequency hearing in my left ear, in most situations my hearing is almost normal. I can understand speech fine and appreciate music.
Is this still true when you block your good ear as well?
There's a chance I'll need a cochlear implant at roughly the same age you received yours - I'd be really keen to understand what the noticeable differences are, particularly regarding music.
Here's the reference song and timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI1cGPfL-Bw&t=130s Without my implant I can barely hear anything the drummer does for the next 10 seconds, so it must be > 1500 Hz, which is the upper limit of my "good" ear. With my cochlear alone (i.e., plugging my "good" left ear) I can hear all the frequencies, but the song sounds "tinny" and lacks clarity. With both ears I'm not consciously missing much in terms of clarity if I had normal hearing, so the brain does a very good job at creating almost normal sound from my two very imperfect ears.
However, please note that outcomes for cochlear implant recipients vary. I've been told that my result is unusually good given that I scored 90%+ on standard audiology speech tests post-implant.
Definitely agree that the brain is quite malleable. I think it was an unexpected result at just how malleable the brain is in adult implant recipients.
FWIW I participated in a post-op research study and IIRC was told that more electrodes wouldn't necessarily improve the quality of the sound. I think what's much more important is the algorithms in the over-the-ear processor. (I have the Nucleus 7: https://www.cochlear.com/au/en/home/products-and-accessories...)
I have normal hearing in my left ear, but have had two bouts of sudden sensorineural hearing loss in my right ear that left me deaf on that side. I was given a range of options after the initial steroid injections didn't work and, since my bone conduction still works, I've chosen the new Osia bone conducting implant. It looks pretty similar to a full-on cochlear implant, since it has a magnetically attached external processor (no open port!), but the only internal gear is a stud implanted in the mastoid that takes the sound from the processor and sends it over to my good ear. I still won't have stereo hearing, but it does give "true" sound, which is a priority for me since I play several instruments.
It's similar to the worries of deaf parents having a hearing child and not being able to connect with them and have less shared experiences.
Speaking for my family, my normal-hearing brother connected just fine with our very deaf parents. He learned sign language and what he had to do to communicate well.
I read in 2008 that a Stanford Professor Stefan Heller aimed to convert stem cells to hair cells in inner ear by 2020 and restore natural hearing. It sounded quite futuristic and unbelievable at the time, I presume the approach did not work. I wish as much innovation happens on the biology side of things as the technology.
[0] https://goettingen-campus.de/news/view?tx_news_pi1%5Baction%...
A few years ago my daughter had a play date with another young girl wearing one, and apart from the fact it was visible, you wouldn't have know she was deaf. I wish my Mum had lived long enough to have the option.