Description:
This article talks about how a 3 year old child got an electrode implant into his brain stem to help him with his congenital disorder in his ear. Apparently, the auditory brain implants in lots of children are a new technique in the field of treatments for the hearing impaired. Unlike cochlear implants in which electrical stimulation being used to stimulate the cochlea, it is instead used to stimulate the brain stem of the recipient. Only about a thousand recipients have been implanted with an auditory brain stem implant, due to the nature of the surgery required to implant the device because it requires brain surgery to implant the device. And of course there are some downsides to this implant such as causing reduced effectiveness in hearing (this is due to the fact that most auditory brain stem implant recipients only have an awareness of sound, so most recipients won't be able to hear musical melodies, but only the beat of the melody itself).So far, this has been the youngest electrode implant operation on a child.
Relevance to Class:
This article is relevant to our class discussions on how the brain stem sends nerve signals throughout the body, telling it what to do and how the ear channels are connected to the possibility of hearing. The cognitive disorder in the child's ear in the article is a good example of how there are many ranges of problems in hearing that lead to people being hearing impaired.
URL: http://www.arabnews.com/news/451805
Author: Unknown
Date of Publication: May 16, 2013
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