14 DAY TRIAL // Experts at the Technical University Munchen (TUM), in Germany, announce the creation of a new computer model that is capable of revealing how sound signals are integrated and implemented in the human brain by the auditory nerve.
The model can also be used to reveal the neural processing patterns that enable people to hear.
The team says that this model could come in handy for companies manufacturing cochlear implants, since their devices will be able to provide much more benefit to their patients after they are tweaked based on the simulation.
At this point, cochlear implants consist of a speech processor, a transmitter coil and an electrode-laden implant that is in direct contact with auditory nerves.
“Getting implants to operate more precisely will require strategies that are better geared to the information processing of the neuronal circuits in the brain. The prerequisite for this is a better understanding of the auditory system,” says TUM professor Werner Hemmert, quoted by Technology.
Applying the new model to real-life devices may take a few years, but researchers are hopeful that future generations of cochlear implants will be able to restore spatial hearing in impaired users as well.