Cochlear implant simulator with independent representation of the full spiral ganglion

What is it about?

Cochlear implant users have the worst challenge of all hearing-impaired people when trying to understand speech in noisy social settings, such as a restaurant. My work in John Culling's lab has focused on two main strands: how listeners can best exploit the acoustics of a real social setting by optimally orienting their head slightly away from, but still lip-read a target talker (the "Turn an Ear to Hear" strategy) and how sound in a cochlear implant processor can be manipulated to enhance the speech-in-noise experience of an implanted individual. We, at Culling Labs, in Cardiff University, Wales, specialize in binaural hearing (that is with two ears or two cochlear implants). Binaural hearing is essential to localization of sounds, and therefore, awareness of the space around you (at least that you can't see, important for road safety of pedestrians, for instance), but also to speech understanding in what researchers call the Cocktail Party problem, how a normally-hearing individual can pick a voice in space out of many and follow that voice or jump to another, an ability seriously impaired by any loss of hearing.

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Why is it important?

This research is important for the well being of the individuals concerned because hearing impairment can be extremely socially isolating. People faced with a serious challenge soon retire from social settings and are deprived from a 'normal' social life. It was scientifically proved over the past 6-7 years that hearing impairment is a key factor in the early onset of dementia. With an ageing population, most of the world, or at least the privileged part of it, will see hearing impairment severely impact, directly or indirectly, the already stressed national health organizations.

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