The surgical procedure for implanting a cochlear implant is a key part of this treatment for sensorineural hearing loss. Videos are a recommended resource for learning more about this process.

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A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.

-  A microphone, which picks up sound from the environment.
-  A speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone.
-  A transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which receive signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses.
-  An electrode array, which is a group of electrodes that collects the impulses from the stimulator and sends them to different regions of the auditory nerve.

Cochlear Implants

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

-  Despite clear benefits of CI and excellent cost‐effectiveness profile, fewer than 10% of adults meeting audiologic criteria are evaluated for possible implantation.

-  Commonly cited reasons for this low implant rate include a lack of education among patients, audiologists, and physicians, difficulties in maintaining financially viable CI programs and socioeconomic disparities.

Current issues with cochlear implants

Cochlear Implant Surgeries

An individual has a type of hearing loss caused by damaged sensory cells in the inner ear, which are responsible for converting sound vibrations into neural signals. However, their auditory nerve, which transmits signals from the inner ear to the brain, is fully functional. Considering the mechanism of a cochlear implant, why is it a suitable intervention for this specific condition?

In Chapter 7, Tsung-Lun Alan Wan uses Critical Discursive Psychology to analyze how Hard of Hearing adults in Taiwan construct Cochlear Implants (CIs) as superior to Hearing Aids (HAs). The author demonstrates that participants frame HAs as shameful symbols of disability, while positioning CIs as desirable technologies that confer an "abled" identity. Wan argues that this discourse establishes a binary between the "abled" CI user and "disabled" HA user, ultimately reinforcing the ideology of audism and the medical model of disability.

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