Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Essay
  • Published:

Toward better representations of sound with cochlear implants

Nature Medicine volume 19, pages 1245–1248 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

“From a physiological point of view, cochlear implants will not work.”

This statement by Professor Rainer Klinke in 1978 was not the first criticism of efforts to develop a treatment for deafness using electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. Klinke was accompanied and preceded by a chorus of experts in otology and hearing science who proclaimed that such an idea was a fool's dream. The cochlea, with its exquisite mechanical machinery, its complex arrangement of more than 15,000 sensory hair cells, and its 30,000 neurons, could not possibly be replaced by a crude and undifferentiated stimulation of many neurons en masse. The argument was a good one. However, the pioneers in the field persevered in the face of the vociferous criticism. Foremost among these pioneers was William F. House, who developed with Jack Urban the first cochlear implant system that could be safely applied over a patient's lifetime and that generally provided an awareness of environmental sounds and an aid to lipreading1. This achievement was a huge step forward.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The RTI team in 1986.
Figure 2: Members of the RTI team in 2001, along with a research subject and his wife.
Figure 3: The payoff: what the intervention and associated technology can do for deaf and severely hearing-impaired persons.

References

  1. Bilger, R.C. et al. Evaluation of subjects presently fitted with implanted auditory prostheses. Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol. 86 (3, Pt. 2, Suppl. 38), 1–176 (1977).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Wilson, B.S. & Dorman, M.F. Cochlear implants: a remarkable past and a brilliant future. Hear. Res. 242, 3–21 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Wilson, B.S. & Dorman, M.F. Better Hearing with Cochlear Implants: Studies at the Research Triangle Institute (Plural, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Wilson, B.S. et al. Better speech recognition with cochlear implants. Nature 352, 236–238 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. National Institutes of Health. Cochlear implants. NIH Consens. Statement 7(2), 1–9 (1988).

  6. National Institutes of Health. Cochlear implants in adults and children. NIH Consens. Statement 13(2), 1–30 (1995).

  7. Gifford, R.H., Shallop, J.K. & Peterson, A.M. Speech recognition materials and ceiling effects: considerations for cochlear implant programs. Audiol. Neurootol. 13, 193–205 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Vale, R.D. How lucky can one be? A perspective from a young scientist at the right place at the right time. Nat. Med. 18, 1486–1488 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wilson, B.S., Dorman, M.F., Woldorff, M.G. & Tucci, D.L. Cochlear implants: matching the prosthesis to the brain and facilitating desired plastic changes in brain function. Prog. Brain Res. 194, 117–129 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Wilson, B.S. & Dorman, M.F. Signal processing strategies for cochlear implants. in Cochlear Implants and Other Implantable Hearing Devices (ed. Ruckenstein, M.J.) (Plural, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The principal support for our work was provided by the NIH. This support included funding for the seven projects described in this essay plus additional projects also in the field of cochlear implants. Further financial and other support was provided by the RTI, Duke University, UCSF, the University of Iowa, MED-EL, Cochlear Americas, Advanced Bionics and the Storz Instrument Company. Of course, we could not have done anything without our research subjects, and we were blessed with some of the best. Indeed, we were continually amazed by their engagement in the studies, and by their generosity in spending time with us and in helping to improve the human condition. Many sponsors, research subjects, administrators, collaborating investigators and colleagues at the cochlear-implant companies made essential contributions to our shared efforts. The most important source of support for me is my wonderful family. We have had spectacularly good times together, and my wife and our two daughters have tolerated with gracious good humor my 'daydreams' and my time away in intense work or protracted travel. I am so very lucky.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. USA. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Surgery, the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, Blake S. Wilson is a Co-Director of the Duke Hearing Center at the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, Durham, North Carolina, USA.,

    Blake S Wilson

Authors
  1. Blake S Wilson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wilson, B. Toward better representations of sound with cochlear implants. Nat Med 19, 1245–1248 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3343

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3343

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing