How can we get inside the cochlea?  Seminar

Cochlear implantation is a highly successful treatment for severe to profound deafness in which a surgical prosthesis restores a sensation of sound and gives users access to the auditory world. Importantly, once implanted it remains in situ for life. Given this, there is an ever greater need to understand better how to optimise its function and also to detect subtle deterioration in performance. To do so, we need to develop better methods to diagnose what is happening in the individual cochlea and auditory system more generally in implant users, both before and after cochlear implantation. I will give an overview of research undertaken at the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service in collaboration with others to further these aims, specifically via the development of (i) new bio-markers of hearing (ii) new ways to detect poorly functioning electrode channels and (iii) ways of using routinely available clinical data for better device monitoring.