Cochlear Implants Research Paper

Cochlear Implants

Kasey Paddock

Psychology 101

Dr. Peterson

October 12, 2010

Abstract

Cochlear implants take the place of the damaged or missing hair fibers in the cochlea. The hairs or implants in some cases are what sends the impulses to the brain and interpreted as information. The normal age of cochlear implants is children around 3 or 4 years old.

Cochlear Implants

Located in the inner ear, the cochlea is a spiraling, fluid-filled tunnel that is lined with tiny hairs. Signals travel through the auditory nerve by the fluid and hair cells and make it to the brain, where they are interpreted as information. As tiny as the hairs are, the role they play is crucial. If damaged or absent, the impulses cannot reach the nerves, a condition called sensorineural hearing loss (Desai 2005). This is where the cochlear implant comes in. Cochlear implants stimulate the nerve fibers within the ear by filling in for the damaged or missing hair cells in clusters (Desai 2005).

The first successful cochlear implant is dated back to 1957; it took place in France (Desai 2005). Cochlear implantation offers access to auditory information about speech that has been previously unavailable to profoundly deaf children. Cochlear implants work mainly by transferring information of the sound at a reduced number of frequency channels. Although with this reduced information the ability to hear the words has a very positive impact on their reading development. Studies of the language development of profoundly deaf children show children with cochlear implants development of language highly exceed that of other deaf children. In addition to the general benefits demonstrated for cochlear implantation, growing numbers of studies suggest that the earlier the implantation occurs the greater the benefits for perception, speech, and language development (Johnson and Goswami 2010). The increasing common age of children who get the cochlear implants are those younger than 3 years old...