July
07/19/05
The Brain and How We Communicate
Westminster Presbyterian Church - 4400 N Shartel Ave, OKC

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Q: Tell us about cochlear implants?

A: Cohlear Implants are devices that are worn by individuals that are almost entirely deaf and that consist of both an implantable and wearable component.  The wearable component may be worn on your belt like a cell phone or on your ear like a large hearing aid.  The implantable component has a part that is implanted just below the skin directly behind your ear and another connected part that courses downward into the inner ear or cochlea.  The part that enters the inner ear is actually an electrode with many (up to 24) active spots on it that directly activates the auditory or hearing nerve.   Babies as young as 12 months may receive a cochlear implant and they made be applicable to the elderly as long as they meet certrain health standards.  In order to qualify for a cochlear implant, the individual should have such a profound hearing loss that other types of surgery or standard amplification (hearing aids) are not feasible or useful.  Although hearing is not returned to normal by any means, successful clochlear implant users may be able to use the telephone and carry on conversations in most environments.

Dr. Stephen W. Painton is currently Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Clinic Director of the John W. Keys Speech and Hearing Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.  Previously he held position as Associate Dean of the College of Allied Health at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Department Chairman of Communicative Disorders at East Tennessee State University. Dr. Painton received his Ph.D. degree in Clinical Audiology from the University of Oklahoma in 1975.  He has been, therefore, both a University Professor and a practicing clinical audiologist for 24 years.

Q: Do all Hearing aid wearers suffer loss of directional information?

A: The source of a sound is determined by small differences in the quality of that sound reaching either ear. Small differences in loudness between the ears help us locate high frequency sounds while small time differences are used to locate low frequency sounds. Hearing impaired individuals fitted with two hearing aids that have wide frequency responses and are well balanced should be able to locate the source of a sound without too much difficulty. Of course there are always other distractions and confounding factors such as extraneous noise that might mask these differences. Individuals fitted with one hearing aid tend to experience difficulty with sound location.

Shelagh Bowman-Edmundson M.S. CCC-A Doctoral Candidate at John W. Keys Speech and Hearing Center OUHSC; Area of present research is psycho-acoustics. Prior to her training and studies in audiology, she worked in both special and deaf education in Australia.