Cochlear implant, CI, hearing aid

A cochlear implant, or CI for short, is a technical hearing aid that can, to a certain extent, compensate for the loss of function in the cochlea. In people with normal hearing, sound is conducted via the outer ear to the eardrum and from there, via the ossicles of the middle ear, to the inner ear. Here, the fluid-filled cochlea converts the acoustic information into electrical impulses. Whilst a hearing aid merely amplifies sound to make speech intelligible to the hard-of-hearing person, the CI acts directly on the inner ear and converts sound into electrical impulses. These are transmitted to the auditory nerve in a specific pattern that corresponds, for example, to a spoken word. Cochlear implants, however, enable people with residual hearing or those who have lost their hearing to hear and understand again, across all the pitch ranges necessary for understanding speech.