COCHLEAR IMPLANT PROSTHESES - STRATEGIES AND PROGRESS

Cochlear implant prostheses are designed as an aid for profoundly deaf subjects with residual surviving auditory nerve fibers. The great majority of the individuals of this population have a total or nearly total destruction of the transducing organ of Corti, but have some significant survival of nerve fibers. The basic objective: To generate information by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve array necessary and sufficient to encode speech as intelligible. Progress in development of elements of higher-generation cochlear implant devices is briefly summarized. Initial tests with early model devices indicate that these devices will gain wide application, as aids capable of effecting significant levels of speech recognition in the profoundly (totally) deaf.