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The Importance Of The Cochlear Implants

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The cochlear implant is quite possibly one of the greatest ideas invented to benefit the deaf community. American Sign Language (ASL) has been the main way the deaf communicate and is extremely important to the deaf culture. To those that can hear, being deaf or profoundly hard of hearing has been considered a handicap. It was for that reason that someone invented the cochlear implant, causing a huge debate within the deaf community. Some of those in the deaf community fear that their culture will be lost and destroyed, while others and the hearing community believe that it will better their lives. Most do not realize that this procedure is not a cure and that it will leave those with the implants confused as to where they belong in society. There are quite a few who believe the cochlear implants work just like the hearing aid, only implanted in their head. However, there are significant differences between the two. Cochlear implants do not restore normal hearing, whereas the use of hearing aids can bring it close to normal. Hearing aids send amplified sound to the damaged cochlea, and can be programmed to shape amplification of sound to match the hearing loss. Hearing aids are very limited in their ability to aid severe and profound hearing loss beyond environmental sound and vowels in …show more content…

Cochlear implants are made up of four different parts: microphone, speech processor, transmitter & receiver/stimulator, and the electrode array. The microphone picks up sounds from the environment. The speech processor selects and arranges sounds from the microphone. The transmitter & receiver/stimulator receives signals from the speech processor and converts them into electrode impulses. The electrode array is a group of electrodes that collect the impulses from the stimulator and sends them to different regions of the auditory

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