Cochlear Implant News and Research

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Harnessing neuroplasticity to improve cochlear implant adaptation

Cochlear implants have transformed what is possible for people with profound hearing loss. But the next major advance may depend less on the device itself than on the brain's ability to learn how to use it.

10 Aug 2026

Brain's extracellular matrix controls learning windows and memory stability

For many who have struggled to learn a new language or instrument, it's a familiar pattern: they make rapid progress at first, then hit a plateau that no amount of diligent practice or concentration seems to break.

6 Aug 2026

New brain implant could restore communication for people with speech loss

Many Australians living with neurological disorders, such as motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis, experience speech difficulties and may lose their ability to speak.

29 Jun 2026

Generative AI toys risk exposing minors to propaganda and misinformation

JMIR Publications today released a News and Perspectives article investigating the potential implications of AI–enabled toys for children's well-being and development.

3 Jun 2026

Study explains how the brain focuses on a single voice in noisy environment

MIT neuroscientists have figured out how the brain is able to focus on a single voice among a cacophony of many voices, shedding light on a longstanding neuroscientific phenomenon known as the cocktail party problem.

16 Mar 2026

Toddler thrives after receiving newly FDA-approved cochlear implant system

Six months after becoming the first patient in the United States to receive a newly FDA-approved cochlear implant system, 18-month-old Nene Gudavadze is responding to sound, dancing to music, and saying her first words.

27 Feb 2026

AI model forecasts bone removal in cochlear implant surgery

Cochlear implant surgery helps people with severe hearing loss by placing an electronic device inside the inner ear. To reach the inner ear, surgeons must first remove part of a bone behind the ear, in a procedure called mastoidectomy.

23 Feb 2026

Study shows AI can predict language success after cochlear implants

AI model using deep transfer learning – the most advanced form of machine learning – predicted with 92 % accuracy spoken language outcomes at one-to-three years after cochlear implants (implanted electronic hearing device), according to a large international study published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

30 Dec 2025

When a hearing aid isn’t enough

Kitty Grutzmacher had contended with poor hearing for a decade, but the problem had worsened over the past year. Even with her hearing aids, "there was little or no sound," she said.

23 Oct 2025

Evaluating the link between sound quality, speech recognition and cochlear implant-related quality of life outcomes

More than a million people around the world rely on cochlear implants (CIs) to hear. CI effectiveness is generally evaluated through speech recognition tests, and despite how widespread they are, CI sound quality is typically not considered an indicator of users' quality of life.

14 Oct 2025

New auditory brainstem implant shows promise for patients with Neurofibromatosis type 2

A new study co-led by Mass General Brigham researchers points to a promising new type of auditory brainstem implant (ABI) that could benefit people who are deaf due to Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) and other severe inner ear abnormalities that prevent them from receiving cochlear implants.

16 May 2025

Breakthrough brain training shows promise for Long COVID recovery

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have identified what is believed to be the first intervention found in a randomized controlled trial to show large and very large improvements in multiple symptoms associated with Long COVID, and to result in people debilitated by those symptoms returning to work.

5 May 2025

Soft brainstem implant offers new hope for restoring hearing

Over the last couple of decades, many people have regained hearing functionality with the most successful neurotech device to date: the cochlear implant.

18 Apr 2025

Totally implantable cochlear implant promises a new era of hearing restoration

Scientists have developed a totally implantable cochlear implant that delivers hearing performance comparable to conventional devices while improving quality of life and eliminating the need for external components.

12 Jan 2025

An Arm and a Leg: Don’t get ‘bullied’ into paying what you don’t owe

Caitlyn Mai thought she did everything right. She called ahead to make sure her insurer would cover her cochlear implant surgery.

27 Aug 2024

Her hearing implant was preapproved. Nonetheless, she got $139,000 bills for months.

Caitlyn Mai woke up one morning in middle school so dizzy she couldn't stand and deaf in one ear, the result of an infection that affected one of her cranial nerves.

17 Jul 2024

New gene editing technique offers hope for millions

A team led by Mass Eye and Ear researchers has demonstrated for the first time a successful restoration of hearing through a novel, in vivo genome editing approach in an adult mouse model with a form of inherited deafness caused by mutations in microRNA.

11 Jul 2024