Medizinische Hochschule Hannover

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet Hannover

Leibniz Universität Hannover

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitat Hannover

Wolfgang Ertmer

Thomas Lenarz

Holger Lubatschowski

Gentiana I Wenzel

Hubert H Lim

Andrej Kral

Guenter Reuter

Holger Blume

Günter Reuter

A cochlear implant of a cochlear implant system is described. The cochlear implant comprises electrodes which are mechanically connected to one another and can be inserted in a row in the form of a spiral into a cochlea in order for auditory nerve receptors to be stimulated, a control circuit that can specifically apply electric pulses to the individual electrodes, and an energy source. The control circuit allows the electrodes to be fed in a pulsed manner with electric signals generated by a processor from the acoustic signals, and auditory nerve receptors adjacent to the electrodes to be stimulated. The electrodes are components of modules, each of which comprises its own decoder-and-control circuit for decoding module addresses and stimulation signals and generating electric pulses for the electrodes. Encoded module addresses and stimulation signals generated from acoustic signals are applied to inputs of the decoder-and-control circuit.

Cochlear implant

The invention provides a cochlea stimulator for implantation comprising optical fibers of which are coupled to an irradiation source that is controlled by a modulator to generate irradiation specific for a pre-determined range of sound-frequencies. The cochlea stimulator effects a frequency-specific activation of the organ of Corti needed for speech perception especially in noisy environment and more complex sounds. For imparting excitation signals which are generated by modulated pulsed laser irradiation conducted within an optical fiber in order to elicit nervous signals in residual functional organ of Corti sections, the auditory prosthesis preferably contains optical fibers which are dimensioned to terminate in end sections within the cochlea at different sites or sections of the organ of Corti. e.g. having different lengths for locating their end sections at different internal parts of the cochlea.

Cochlea stimulator

Growing community of inventors

Garbsen, Germany

Wolfgang Ertmer