Hearing loss is extremely common (>1.5 billion people). It adversely impacts an individual’s communication ability, educational achievement, employment opportunities, and quality of life. Here, researchers explain how important predicting the performance of cochlear implants is
Hearing loss in adults has been related to cognitive decline, depression, and other conditions, and it comes at an enormous cost to society (~$980 billion, annually). A cochlear implant is a prosthetic device designed to detect sounds in the environment, decode these sounds in to frequency (pitch) and intensity (loudness) components, which are then delivered as electrical impulses to the cochlear (or auditory) nerve by way of an implanted receiver stimulator.
The brain can then perceive the sounds to restore audibility (sound detection), speech understanding, and communication abilities for adults who are deaf or hard of hearing and receive limited benefit from hearing aids. Since the 1980’s, nearly 1 million people have received cochlear implants world-wide.
Despite the overwhelming success of cochlear implants, there remains wide variability in performance among recipients. This variability relates to patient (cochlear-neural and brain health), device (design and function) and surgical (placement) factors.
The predictors of cochlear implant performance
Investigators at Washington University in St Louis, Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery have been working to unlock the predictors of cochlear implant performance among adults with hearing loss for many years (Holden et al 2013).
In the early 2000’s, Dr. Craig Buchman, working with Drs. Doug Fitzpatrick and Oliver Adunka at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, used electrophysiological cochlear-neural measures (i.e. electrocochleography) as a biomarker of cochlear health in patients undergoing cochlear implantation.
The fight to advance performance prediction
These early experiments yielded results that were strongly correlated with speech perception abilities using the device. More recently, Dr. Buchman, together with Dr. Amit Walia, and Dr. Matthew Shew at Washington University, have focused on expanding and refining the application of electrocochleography as well as incorporating imaging and cognitive measures to further advance performance prediction.
Our large, multi-disciplinary team composed of audiologists, neurotologists, and neuroscientists have recently been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study/pursue this approach with the intent of bringing this to clinical use for the benefit of patients in need.
