ASL 1103 Unit 14 Culture: Cochlear Implants

How much does a CI cost?

Averages about $50,000, including post-operative rehabilitation costs

Does it make hearing normal?

NO.

Why are post-lingually deafened individuals are the BEST candidates?

Because they already have a knowledge base of sounds, language, and sounds of language to go off of, giving them an easier time of picking sounds out.

Who can get a CI?

CIs are approved for implantation beginning at 12 months and older for those who demonstrate a severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss and lack of progress in the development of auditory skills.

What is a cochlear implant?

Electronic device that simulates the function of the damaged or absent hair cells by providing electrical stimulation to the remaining nerve fibers

How is a cochlear implant different from a hearing aid?

Hearing aids amplify sound, make it louder. No matter how loud the sound, a profoundly deaf ear can not process the information due to damaged hair cells. Cochlear implants directly stimulate the surviving auditory nerve fibers. This does not make sound louder, but allows the individual to perceive sound.

Process of getting a cochlear implant:

TESTING: audiological, speech/language, psychological, and medical evaluations, as well as X-rays and CAT scans to determine integrity of auditory structures. SURGERY: 4-6 hours, usually outpatient FOLLOW-UP, FOLLOW-UP, and more FOLLOW-UP

CI outcomes:

The average adult cochlear implant user will understand about 80 percent of what is spoken to them. They will recognize individual's voices, sounds in the environment, even music. Children who had normal hearing for 4 years or more before becoming deaf do extremely well with cochlear implants, usually keeping up with their normally-hearing peers. Results for children born deaf vary widely and are generally not predictable. Implantation at younger ages usually generates better outcomes.

external part of cochlear implant

The external speech processor, worn behind the ear, has a microphone to pick up sounds which are then converted into encoded signals that are transmitted by radio waves to the internal surgically implanted part.

internal part of cochlear implant

The internal receiver unit then sends this coded information via an electrode array to stimulate the auditory nerve fibers in the inner ear (cochlea). The activated auditory nerves transmit the sound signal to the brain for sound perception.

How does a cochlear implant work?

The modern cochlear implant has two parts: an external non-surgically implanted speech processor and an internal surgically implanted unit.

What does a cochlear implant sound like?

The perceived sound signals MAY NOT be identical to sounds heard by the normal hearing ear, but profoundly hearing impaired people learn to interpret this range of auditory signals to understand speech.

Cochlear implant controversy is:

Those who support cochlear implants believe that normalization is the key to success for deaf children. On the other side, the Deaf community and others opposed to cochlear implants feel that deafness should be looked at as a cultural identity, not a disability.

Just because something may help (CIs in this case)

it doesn't mean you should go ahead with it. There are always risks (psychological trauma and isolation).

Risks of getting a cochlear implant:

require surgery, possible injury to facial nerve, fluids leaking, infection, dizziness, tinnitus, loss of residual hearing. Don't turn deaf into hearing > oral speech understanding and producing depends from person to person.

Other opponents of cochlear implants argue that

treating deafness as an illness needing a cure is insulting and demeaning to the Deaf because of its message that the Deaf are of lesser worth than the hearing