Cochlear Implants & Music

[karenmeal 0]

I've been learning lots about cochlear implants recently. The technology is amazing to me. Really cool stuff.

Recently in class we listened to a demo of what music may sound like to someone with a cochlear implant. It doesn't sound very good.

If anyone is interested here is a link to the demos:

http://www.hei.org/research/aip/audiodemos.htm

If you scroll down the page and click on music 1 or music 2 you can listen to the demos. It basically plays different possible performance levels of a cochlear implant and then the actual song. (Hard to explain what the demo actually shows.)

I think this stuff is really fascinating and thought that one or two of you on here might get a kick out of listening to these demos.

-Karen

"Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

[Lindercles 0]

I heard a story about this on NPR a few months ago. Very cool.

I recognized the first clip on 4 channels, the second one I didn't recognize at all. Hopefully that will improve with time, but still amazing technology.

[NWFlyer 2]

Really cool... and you realize how far we've come and how far we still have to go with technology.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[BillyVance 34]

It is the general consensus of the deaf community that cochlear implants only benefit those of us whose hearing loss is so bad that standard over-the-ear hearing aids are not strong enough. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the limit is probably 110 decibel hearing loss. Anything over that is reason enough to consider a cochlear implant.

You're right. Cochlear implants do not accurately convert sound as it should sound like because you are completely bypassing the eardrum and middle ear.

Because my hearing loss is around 100-105 decibels, and I use a hearing aid on my right ear very well, I would hate what a cochlear implant gives me, and once I get the implant, there is no turning back. I would be stuck with it. That's a heavy choice to deal with for deaf people like me.

Miss America 1993, Heather Whitestone, who is deaf, opted for a cochlear implant not long after her first child was born. She was like me, using a hearing aid to get by, but for her, it wasn't strong enough to listen to her child play in the backyard. However, she came to regret getting the implant because it drove her crazy, as she was hearing sounds she was not used to or didn't care for.

That said, cochlear implants probably benefit the most, those who have never heard sound before.

Have anyone seen the documentary titled "The Sound And The Fury"? It's about a pair of brothers, one hearing and one deaf, who have their own families and deaf children. The hearing brother favored a cochlear implant for his kid, while the deaf brother wouldn't put one on his kid. The main focus of the documentary was the battle between mainstreaming vs deaf culture. It's an excellent film.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Lindercles 0]

I was thinking something similar. Some of those sounds in the demo sound really creepy, and if I had to hear sound effects like I was living in a horror movie all the time, it would probably drive me crazy, too.

[karenmeal 0]

Hey Billy,

OK. I'm putting The Sound and The Fury on our NetFlix Queue! It's about time I saw that movie.

Learning more about the science behind cochlear implants it is quite apparent the many limitations that exist. It codes/processes sound in such a different way than the human ear. Knowing how different it actually is when compared to the human ear I think it is amazing that it works as well as it does!

I am really beginning to understand the reasons why someone would not be interested in cochlear implants. Not to mention the fact that it's brain surgery, the sound quality is so completely different. The music clips that I listened to sound downright scary! I can only imagine what other sounds would also get processed in a strange way. Then there is the potential for an array of complications that could leave someone worse off than before.

But.. the benefit that some children are seeing from cochlear implants is really what amazes me the most.

I'm really looking forward to seeing advances in the technology.



-Karen

"Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

[Snowwhite 0]

My grandmother lost all of her hearing in an illness when she was 17.
When she was in her 60's they used her as one of the 'test subjects' for cochlear implants. It didn't do much.
20 years later she had the second ear done, and it was so much better that she called my father on the phone to tell him that there was this 'strange noise' in her house and it had her scared.
He asked her to hold the phone out so that he could hear what she was listening to. When the noise happened again, he told her "mom, that's your front door bell, someone has come to see you"
Can you even imagine what she had missed all of those years?

skydiveTaylorville.org
[email protected]

[mfrese 0]

Another fascinating piece of technology is the BAHA (Bone Attached Hearing Aid). My niece has one, as she has profound hearing loss in both ears due to a congenital deformity of the stapies (sp?). She also has developmental disabilities, so it took until she was about 12 before she was able to productively take a hearing test.

It's actually pretty interesting that she sometimes prefers her standard hearing aid over the BAHA...I've asked her why, and she just seems to like music and conversation better with the hearing aid. I guess it seems to her like there's too much input from the BAHA, so it's good for general environments like school, not so good for smaller, more focused environments. Either way, it's cool technology, and I'm glad we have stuff like it to help her out.

Doctor I ain't gonna die,
Just write me an alibi! ---- Lemmy/Slash