Peering into the past and future of cochlear implants as they aid over one million users

Cochlear implants have changed the lives of over a million people, and are by far the most successful neural prosthesis. Since their development in 1984, cochlear implants have enabled their users to recognize spoken words and sentences with clarity.

Fan-Gang Zeng explored the history of the cochlear implant and how innovations in the device led to advances in understanding hearing and speech. He also discussed the future of the cochlear implant amid other neural prostheses.

While the first cochlear implants were limited in ability, modern multi-channel implants are extremely reliable, enabling users to understand spoken words and phrases 70 to 80 percent of the time. The successful pathway from concept to effective device could inform the development of other neural prostheses and neural interfaces.

“The cochlear implant story illustrates the innovation journey from an idea to a safe and effective medical device, which requires a dynamic interplay between science, technology and the market,” said author Fan-Gang Zeng. “Lessons learned from cochlear implants should be of broad interest to those working in other neural prostheses.”

The paper also highlighted the current bottleneck facing cochlear implant technology, which has prevented any significant improvement in recent decades. The primary issue is the electrode array connecting the implant to the inner ear, which is too far from the auditory nerve to effectively transmit subtle changes in pitch.

Zeng hopes that passing the one million implant milestone will spur researchers to develop new technologies to further improve this successful prosthesis. He suggests direct auditory nerve implantation and optic stimulation as potential advances that could bring cochlear implants into the modern era.

Source: “Celebrating the one millionth cochlear implant,” by Fan-Gang Zeng, JASA Express Letters (2022). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0012825 .