Cochlear implant users can hear music

Cochlear implanted hearing-impaired users have difficulty in listening to music. The reason is cochlear implant does not produce the natural sound. But the recent research by the scientists at University of Washington shows Cochlear implanted users can hear music. Scientists at University of Washington have developed a new way of processing the signals in cochlear implants to help users hear music better. The users can differentiate sound generated by different musical instruments, Which is not possible in the present-day standard cochlear implants. Les Atlas, lead researcher at University of Washington professor of electrical engineering says “Right now, cochlear-implant subjects do well when it’s quiet and there is a single person talking, but with music, noisy rooms or multiple people talking, it’s difficult to hear,” “We are on the way to solving the issue with music.” adds Atlas. Atlas and other researchers are using this technique to make the hearing speech better in noisy environment. Atlas and collaborator Jay Rubinstein, a UW professor of otolaryngology and of bioengineering, and members of their labs have published their initial findings in the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. Co-authors include Xing Li, who recently completed her doctorate in electrical engineering at the UW; Kaibao Nie, an otolaryngology lecturer and a...