Sometimes called a "bionic ear," the cochlear implant offers the hope of regaining or restoring the ability to sense sound for some people who have experienced significant hearing loss.
Although they're not miracle devices, cochlear implants help some children and adults, whether they're born deaf or whether hearing loss occurs later in life, experience talking on the phone, listening to music, and hearing the voices of their friends and loved ones - things a person with normal hearing often takes for granted.
Its function is to gather electrical signals from sound vibrations and transmit them to your auditory nerve (or hearing nerve).
If important parts of the cochlea aren't working properly and the hearing nerve isn't being stimulated, there's no way for the electrical signals to get to your brain.
By completely bypassing the damaged part of the cochlea, the cochlear implant uses its own electrical signals to stimulate the auditory nerve, allowing the person to hear.
The hair cells bend back and forth and send electrical signals to the hearing nerve, and the hearing nerve then carries these signals to the brain, where they're interpreted.
The actual cochlear implant consists of an implant package, which is secured inside the skull, and a sound and speech processor, which is worn externally (outside the body).
a receiver-stimulator that contains all of the electronic circuits that control the flow of electrical pulses into the ear an antenna that receives the signals from the external sound and speech processor a magnet that holds the external sound and speech processor in place two wires containing electrodes that are inserted into the cochlea (the number of electrodes can vary depending on the cochlear implant model type used).