PSYCHOLOGY Sample | EssayIvy.com

Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 1

Cochlear Implants

Name

Institution

AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 2

Abstract

Cochlear implants (CIs) have been widely studied to vast aspects that enhance its

performance as well as foster its challenges. Cochlear implants bear the definition of prosthetic

technology that allows the deaf to experience hearing and spoken language. Cochlear implants

(CIs) are electrically bypassed to the nerve endings in the ear and the implant transmits sounds to

the brain through the auditory nerve. The aim of this paper is to analyze vast aspects that

concerns cochlear implants. The paper will begin by discussing the effects of behavior problems

in children with cochlear implants in order to define whether the cochlear implants affect their

behavior. Secondly, the paper looks at how children with cochlear implants showed ease or

difficult voice and emotion recognition compared to their normally-hearing peers (Chao et al,

2014). On a third note, the paper will review the bilateral cochlear implants in relation to the

perception and interaural time differences coding. In simpler terms, the paper will define the

coding and perception reliance of bilateral cochlear implant on its users. On a different note, the

paper will further analyze the challenges that the research community has experienced defining

and applying vast aspects of cochlear implants (Zhou et al 2014). Thus, the nerve conditions and

stimulation aspects in relation to the importance of cochlear health for implant function fosters

difficulties to the pioneers of cochlear implants. Lastly, the paper discusses the benefits of deep

electrode insertion as well as sound coding techniques in cochlear implants. This section further

depicts that cochlear implants through the deep insertion electrodes are extremely beneficial

because the insertion improves the speech understanding and sound quality to its users especially

when they are exposed in noisy areas. Therefore, the paper will review numerous topics that

relate to cochlear implants by depicting its positive impact and the negative aspects that affect its

performance.

AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 3

Behavior Problems in Children with Cochlear Implants

Children behave differently due to various factors that contribute to their upbringing.

However, when it comes to disabilities like hearing correspondence, children with deafness

defect tend to behave differently from their hearing counterparts. The most challenging aspect

concerning such children is that the cochlear implants do not grant the much difference in terms

of improving the children’s behavior. For this reason, a research was carried out to determine the

difference of behavior between normal hearing children and children with cochlear implants. The

research was carried out on sixty patients aged 6-18 years (Chao et al, 2014). The research

monitored these children for a period of eight years.

The results of the research depicted that many children had normal internalizing and

externalizing behaviors. However, children with cochlear implants had high rates of social and

attention related behavior problems compared to the behaviors of the normal hearing children.

The survey also depicts that such children are withdrawn, have social problems, thought

problems, attention problems and aggressive behavior (Chao et al, 2014). Experts argue that

these behaviors could be contributed by various factors that are enhanced by the inability to

naturally hear or recognize emotions. However, language delay seems to be the main cause of

these behaviors because language mediates social relations and enhance behavioral control.

Therefore, since children with sensor neural hearing loss depict delayed language, their behavior

control becomes a problem. The fact that they do not have a normal conversing platform also

makes them confused because they cannot adhere to the environments that surround them or

freely mingle with people around them. This explains why they are drawn back and behave

differently as a means of keeping off. Prior to keeping off, these children’s behavior deteriorates

and goes out of control, an aspect that increases parental stress (Chao et al, 2014). In order to

AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 4

curb this situation, a hearing and behavior performance follow up is essential in order to allow

suitable treatment plans and customized rehabilitation programs.

Voice Emotion Recognition by Cochlear-Implanted Children and their Normally-Hearing

Peers

The ability of children to correctly hear and recognize the mood and the intention of the

speaker is an essential aspect in their development both socially and linguistically. Earlier

research clarifies the fact that children with cochlear implants have difficulties recognizing

voices and emotions (Chatterjee et al, 2014). More so, the study depicted that younger children

had difficulty processing degraded speech. This was derived at after various studies of speech

perception were carried out under numerous conditions like sine wave speech noise vocoding,

reverberation as well as background noise. The results showed that the reason why there was no

developmental effect in cochlear implant population is because various factors contributed to the

vice. These factors are electrode insertion depth, etiology of hearing loss, the rehabilitative

services received, nerve survival among other factors. Therefore, cochlear implants are effective

because they have elements that help children to detect and recognize voices as well as emotions.

The survey carried out clarifies this fact because it depicted a great achievement in voice and

emotion recognition in children, but only if their hearing aid is not disrupted by the afore-

mentioned factors (Chatterjee et al, 2014). This means that an in-depth survey is needed and it

should include a larger database of stimuli, a more comprehensive acoustic analysis and multiple

talkers that include both children and adults.

AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 5

Perception and Coding of Interaural Time Differences with Bilateral Cochlear Implants

The clinical treatment of profound deafness has taken a new dimension since the

introduction of bilateral Cochlear implants. This is the case because there emerged reasons of

implanting Cochlear implants in both ears in order to grant users an experience of normal

hearing. This is because binaural Cochlear implants allows sound sources along both the right

and the left dimension. Therefore, bilateral Cochlear implantation aims at granting its users with

access to binaural signals, which are essential for localizing the sources of sounds and speech

understanding in diverse environments where there are interfering sounds (Laback, Egger &

Majdak, 2014). Despite the aid granted by Cochlear Implants, another crucial concept called

interaural time difference (ITD) matters because they determine the characters of low frequency

sounds as well as spatial release. However, the challenge emerges because Interaural Time

Differences (ITD) are not frequently represented by clinical based Cochlear implants systems.

Therefore, to determine coding and perception of Interaural Time Differences (IRD) sensitivity

of Cochlear implants (CIs) and how its users depended on stimulation parameters, an analysis

was carried out (Laback, Egger & Majdak, 2014). The stimulation parameters included

stimulation place, rate, modulation rate and other vast aspects.

The results of the survey depicted that many bilateral Cochlear implants users had worst

performance compared to NH listeners. The result also depicted that ITD sensitivity varied

across bilateral Cochlear implants listeners. More so, Interaural Time Differences perception

showed beneficial factors in electric hearing. Among these beneficial factors are that the

stimulation of the neural pathways possess high temporal acuity. The other beneficial factor is

that the match between temporal properties of AN responded to electric stimulation (Laback,

Egger & Majdak, 2014). In addition, a low degree of channel interactions was attained due to the

AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 6

spread of electric current. Another benefit the interaural match grant is the place of electric

stimulation takes place and the fact that a user receives binaural auditory input in the first five

years both electrical and acoustical. Therefore, since bilateral Cochlear implants do not grant the

much-needed coding and perception reliance, there is a need for future research, which will

provide a better understanding of the presented factors as well as other factors that affect ITD

and its perception in electric hearing. Thus, improved access to salient ITD cues depicts an

improved future performance of Cochlear implant listeners (Laback, Egger & Majdak, 2014).

Importance of Cochlear Health for Implant Function

Electrophysiological and psychophysical studies in human subjects depicted that the

patterns of implant function varied from one stimuli site to the next due to varying conditions

near the electrodes and scala tympani (Zhou et al 2014). Thus, the functions of implants are

determined by conditions like the health of the neurons, the distance of the neurons to the

electrodes, the presence of fibrous tissue or bone in the path from electrodes to neurons. These

functions measures positively guide processor fitting, an aspect that help in improving speech

recognition in humans who use cochlea implants. However, despite that the pioneers of Cochlear

implants have helped millions of hearing impaired individuals; they have also presented the

research community with vast interesting challenges (Zhou et al 2014). Among the challenges is

that the research community experience difficulties dealing with a partially degraded auditory

nerve, which is the aim of Cochlear implants stimulation. Thus, the challenge arises in the sense

that the research community finds it hard comprehending how the nerve’s condition impacts the

function of Cochlear implants, and how this understanding might be used to enhance the

perception quality experienced by patients using the implant (Zhou et al 2014). The challenge

intensifies further because results derived from earlier research, which related neural status

AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 7

performance with the implants challenged the perception that the auditory nerve condition is

extremely crucial for speech recognition with Cochlear implants.

More so, a study of ganglion neurons (SGNs) in cadaveric temporal bones derived from

deceased patients depicted little relationship with Cochlear implant functions in life. In addition,

the auditory nerve condition at the time of death differed from the condition when the subject’s

ability to use the implant was assessed. The other puzzle that the study depicted was that the

anatomical status of the auditory nerve that are observable under the light microscope was

inadequate to represent the health of the neural population because the result might not grant the

needed changes in the sensitivity properties of the nerves in the pathological state (Zhou et al

2014). Therefore, the cochlear health for implant function depicts several difficulties that

challenge its importance. This calls for further research in order to determine the relationship

between electrophysiological and psychophysical measures of speech recognition, cochlear

health and the function of the implant.

Deep Electrode Insertion and Sound Coding in Cochlear Implants

Present day cochlear implants depict remarkable speech understanding performance

especially with the invention of deep electrode insertion. This is because the deep electrode

insertion allows a deep insertion that reaches the required apical region (Hochmair et al, 2014).

This insertion has numerous advantages that include access to minimal frequency information,

minimize channel interaction due to the separation fostered by a wider contact, several channels

and coverage of a wider range of cochlear locations. This means that the insertion covers a wide

range of cochlear locations, which turn out to occupy a large space; hence, reducing disruption

form noise. The goal of inserting super flexible straight electrodes through the round window

membrane is to attain hearing and structure preservation that possess deep insertion electrodes

AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 8

and average insertion length. More so, the goal of this insertion is to reach the epical area of

cochlea, where there is an effective rate pitch that carries out low pitch fine frequency

information (Hochmair et al, 2014). These applied strategies integrate with the better placer pitch

mach and it acts as an outcome of the complete cochlear coverage. This fosters an intrinsic with

long electrodes that foster a more natural hearing that end up allowing greater enjoyment of

music as well as improved communication capabilities. For this reason, the advantage of deep

insertion electrodes is that it has greatly improved the speech understanding and sound quality

especially in noisy areas.

Conclusion

Cochlear implants (CIs) have achieved tremendous success because prior to aiding

hearing capabilities on profoundly deaf individuals, Cochlear implants deliver speech

information to individuals who are severely impaired. Statistics depict that more than three

hundred thousand patients all over the world now use Cochlear implants. Most of these patients

are children who were born deaf, while others lost their hearing capability within the first few

years in life. Cochlear implants have undergone vast challenges that foster its functionality.

These challenges include high rates of social and attention related behavior problems in children

with cochlear implants compared to the behaviors of the normal hearing children (Chao et al,

2014). Another challenge is that bilateral Cochlear implants do not grant the much-needed

coding and perception reliance. However, the overall performance has provided positive results.

Among the progresses granted by cochlear implants is that it supports high levels of speech

understanding in many post-lingual deaf adults, who had learnt spoken language normally during

childhood (Hochmair et al, 2014). More so, present-day cochlear implants exhibit outstanding

speech understanding performance despite that the non-optimized coding strategies that concern

AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 9

the spread of tonal information. This is because most of the systems depend on place pitch

information despite the large deviations that are derived from correct tonotopic placement of vast

stimulation sites. In addition, low frequency information is limited because of the constant pulse

rate stimulation of the limited insertion depth of the electrodes. This grants a compromised

perception of both music and tonal languages (Laback, Egger & Majdak, 2014). In addition,

cochlear implants through the deep insertion electrodes have greatly improved the speech

understanding and sound quality to its users especially when they are exposed in noisy areas.

More so, cochlear implants depicted a great achievement in aiding voice and emotion recognition

in children especially when their hearing aid is not disrupted by various factors that include sine

wave speech noise vocoding, reverberation as well as background noise.

AN ANALYSIS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANTS 10

References

Chao, W., Lee, L., Liu, T., Tsou Y, Chan K, & Wu, C. (2014). Behavior Problems in Children

With Cochlear Implants. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 7, 648–

653.

Chatterjee, M., Zion, D., Deroche, M., Burianek, B., Limb, C., Goren, A., Kulkarni, A,. &

Christensen, J. (2014).Voice Emotion Recognition By Cochlear-Implanted Children and

Their Normally- Hearing Peers. Hearing Research 322 (15)1e162.

Hochmair, I., Hochmair, E., Nopp, P., Waller, M, & Jolly, C. (2014). Deep Electrode Insertion

And Sound Coding In Cochlear Implants. Institute for Ion Physics and Applied Physics,

University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Laback, B., Egger, K, & Majdak, P. (2014). Perception and Coding of Interaural Time

Differences with Bilateral Cochlear Implants. Acoustics Research Institute, Austrian

Academy of Sciences, Wohllebengasse 12-14, A-1040 Vienna, Austria

Zhou, N., Pfingst, B., Colesa, D., Watts, M., Strahl, S, Garadat, S., Schvartz-Leyzac, K., Budenz,

C., Raphael Y, & Zwolan, T. (2014). Importance of Cochlear Health For Implant

Function. Hearing Researc,h 322 (77) e88.

Place new order. It's free, fast and safe

Paper type

Deadline

Page count

550 words

Total price: $ 15.00

Our customers say

Jeff Curtis

USA, Student

"I'm fully satisfied with the essay I've just received. When I read it, I felt like it was exactly what I wanted to say, but couldn’t find the necessary words. Thank you!"

Ian McGregor

UK, Student

"I don’t know what I would do without your assistance! With your help, I met my deadline just in time and the work was very professional. I will be back in several days with another assignment!"

Shannon Williams

Canada, Student

"It was the perfect experience! I enjoyed working with my writer, he delivered my work on time and followed all the guidelines about the referencing and contents."