Learning to listen with a Cochlear Implant
Ears & Hearing
How a cochlear implant enables deaf people to hear.
In a hearing ear, sound waves pass along the ear canal and bounce against the ear drum. This causes the eardrum and the three little bones in the middle ear to vibrate. The vibrations ripple through the fluid in the inner ear or cochlea, and trigger an electrical response in thousands of tiny hair cells. The electrical response is sent up the hearing nerve to the brain, and the sound is heard.
The tiny hair cells are thus a vital link in the chain. In people with a severe or profound hearing loss, they are usually damaged or absent. A cochlear implant does the job of the hair cells, by sending signals to the brain via the hearing nerve (auditory nerve)
