Research advances for cochlear implants

Considerable progress has been made with speech processing for multiple-channel cochlear implants, with a mean open-set CNC word score of 40% for electrical stimulation alone for the Nucleus SPEAK strategy. Further advances should be achieved through the following: beam-forming dual microphone systems for hearing in noise; better reproduction of the coding of sound frequencies; and taking advantage of plasticity in the central auditory pathways in young children. The reproduction of frequency coding will be facilitated with speech processors such as the Nucleus 24 system which can provide higher stimulus rates, and a new generation of electrode arrays where a greater number of electrodes lie close to the spiral ganglion cells.