• Question: If you were deaf , could you put some thing in your brain like an implant to help you if a hearing aid doesnt work?

    Asked by ninjanae to Tim, Suzi, Rachael, Damien on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi @ninjanae
      These implants actually exist!

      When I was at primary school one of my good friends was deaf. He had hearing aids for a while but they didn’t help him. Then he had an implant in to his head.

      However, these implants do not link directly to the brain. They link to the cochlear, part of the inner ear. They work for people who are deaf because the hairs in their cochlear are not there.

      The implant links directly to the cochlear and means that sound input will then cause the cochlear to send signals to the brain, as it should if it was functioning properly.

      Although the sounds that these deaf people hear are not as high quality as ‘normal’ hearing, they can transform a deaf person’s life, and they certainly did for my friend.

      You can see some pictures and read more about it here
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant

      I hope this answers your question!

    • Photo: Tim Fosker

      Tim Fosker answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi @ninjanae

      A great answer from Suzi! I can’t really add much. One of my friends does research looking at how deaf children with cochlear implants develop spoken and written language. Cochlear implants definitely help deaf children, but there is a big debate among scientist about how early they should be implanted. The sounds that are heard from a cochlear implant have to be programmed differently for each person and a deaf person has to get used to the sounds which they have never heard before. Cochlear implants aren’t suitable for everyone, but they are an amazing invention!

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