Dr. Ruth Litovsky Cocktail Party Effect Summary

The ear is made up of three areas: the outer, middle, and inner ear. The outer ear is very important for collecting sound waves. It is made up of the pinna and the ear canal. The pinna, the actual physical outward appearance of the ear, receives sound waves and begins to funnel them into the ear canal.

The sound of your parents voice, hearing your favorite song playing on the radio, even knowing the sound of your own voice, these are just a few sounds that sadly many of us take for granted, and unfortunately many will never get to experience. Hearing loss affects about 10% of the Global population, with 124.2 million people affected from a moderate level to a severe disability. (WHO 2008)

While there are many risks involved with cochlear implants, there could also be many benefits. The question that remains is, “Do the benefits of receiving a cochlear implant outweigh the risks?” Although many advances have been made scientifically to improve the effectiveness of cochlear implants, it is also important to examine the opinions of the deaf society, how a deaf person’s communication skills may develop with or without a cochlear implant, and the economic factors

Hearing loss is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in the United States, affecting nearly 35 million, or 1 in 9, Americans. Hearing aids is a necessity in the life of someone who is hard-of-hearing, if they choose to use them. Furthermore of the 35 million living with hearing loss only 25% of them actually use a hearing aid, this means that around 26 million are living with untreated hearing loss (Audicus, 2014). Most of the reasoning behind

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, “About 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears.” Cochlear Implants are mechanical devices that are highly promoted by the hearing society to “cure” deafness. Despite the fact Cochlear Implants can be effective, the risk of serious physical and emotional harm to a patient outweighs the chances of its success.

Over 360 million people or about five percent of the world population have disabling hearing loss (Deafness). Disabling hearing loss refers to hearing loss greater than 40 decibels for adults and a hearing loss of greater than 30 decibels for children (Deafness). 40 decibels is equivalent to the tune of a refrigerator humming. Although hearing loss can be mild, moderate, severe, or profound -- there are numerous ways of improving the damaged hearing (Deafness). The most common ways are through hearing aids and cochlear implants. Cochlear implants is a type of implanted electronic hearing device; it is designed to produce hearing sensations that are useful to a person with profound nerve deafness Cochlear Implants -€“ Facts). The device is more ideal for people who cannot benefit substantially with the help of hearing aids (Cochlear Implants -€“ Facts). Today, over 219,00 people are using Cochlear Implants (Cochlear Implants, Baylor). The technology used in cochlear implants is more complex and improves hearing and communication skills drastically. Despite cochlear implants having many disadvantages, there are more benefits that will help towards improving hearing loss.

Sometimes people forget that eyesight and hearing are not something that everybody has. There are some people in the world that are living without one or both of these senses. In some circumstances, these two senses are able to be given to somebody who hasn’t had them before. There are many different procedures and ways for a person to either gain their eyesight or hearing again, for the first time in their life. In terms of hearing, there is a procedure that is booming popularity all over the world. Along with having the surgery, the patient then wears a device called a cochlear implant. Cochlear Implants are changing the world of hearing so that people who receive them are able to gain hearing ability to sounds around them. This partially unknown medical procedure is gaining more attention around the world with its high success rates and its ability to change peoples lives forever.

Cindy Beyer, Au.D. and HearUSA V.P. of Professional Services, said, “Studies have shown that, left untreated, even mild hearing loss can lead to avoidance of social situations, reduced alertness and increased risk to personal safety, diminished overall health, and reduced job performance and earning power. Untreated hearing loss can also jeopardize family and intimate relationships.”

As an undergraduate, I performed research on deafness, investigating hearing regeneration and unique auditory phenotypes. Based on my work, I was selected to be a Post-Baccalaureate Fellow at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders within the National Institutes of Health. This is a two-year program (07/14-07/16). I lead three projects focused on novel clinical therapies to prevent hearing loss from ototoxic drugs—drugs that cause hearing loss in hundreds of thousands of patients. There exists the need for therapies that protect the inner ear from ototoxic drugs without altering their therapeutic effects, and the focus of my research has been to help develop novel therapies.

Bilateral and unilateral cochlear implantation are popular mode of assistance to those with severe to profound hearing impairments. The research on the effects of bilateral and unilateral cochlear implants continues to grow. However, the effect of bilateral cochlear implants versus unilateral cochlear implants on speech perception has been researched under limited criteria, such as in the presence of quiet only. There is minimal current research regarding the effects of bilateral and unilateral cochlear implants on speech perception in the presence of noise. This study represents quasi-experimental research that compares the effects of bilateral cochlear implants to unilateral cochlear implants on speech perception in the presence of noise. The hypothesis was that bilateral cochlear implants would be more effective compared to unilateral cochlear implants in regards to speech perception in noise. Forty young adults participated in this study. Twenty subjects were bilateral cochlear implant users (CI-CI) and the other 20 subjects were unilateral cochlear implant users (CI-Only). Both groups were administered two speech perception in noise tests to determine the efficacy of having two cochlear implants versus one. The results of this study indicated that bilateral cochlear implants were more effective in comparison to unilateral cochlear implants in regards to speech perception in noise. Therefore, the results supported the hypothesis that bilateral

The ability of an individual to carry out auditory tasks in the real world is influenced not only by his or her hearing abilities, but also by a multitude of situational factors, such as background noise, competing signals, room acoustics, and familiarity with the situation. Such factors are important regardless of whether one has a hearing loss, but the effects are magnified when hearing is impaired. For example, when an individual with normal hearing engages in conversation in a quiet, well-lit setting, visual information from the speaker’s face, along with situational cues and linguistic context, can make communication quite effortless. In contrast, in a noisy environment, with poor lighting and limited visual cues, it may be much more difficult

Walton (2014) stated “The prevalence of deafness has been increasing rapidly over the last 30 years. Since 1971 deafness has gone from about 13 million to almost 30 million (Walton, 2014). Of all the students with an IEP under IDEA, almost 2% of them are classified with hearing disabilities and that is not accounting for the others with comorbidity” (Walton 2014). Some people are born deaf whereas others acquire a hearing loss. There is no genetic disposition for being deaf although some disorders and diseases are associated with hearing loss. Hearing is characterized by degrees, types, and patterns of hearing loss. The variations in hearing loss mean no two people experience deafness the same way even if their hearing loss is the same.

Approximately fifteen percent of American adults have some hearing loss problems and around two or three children in every thousand are born with a loss of hearing. This has lead to the development of a lot of different instruments to help amplify hearing or produce it synthetically. The most common of these fall under the category of either hearing aids or cochlear implants but there are also many others including auditory brainstem implants.

The ear is made up of three parts, the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of the pinnae. Its function is to focus sound on the tympanic membrane. The middle ear is where the three ossicles are containes, the Malleus, Incus,

inner portions. The outer ear, or pinna, is the structure that we call the ear.