October 2026
May 2026
Brain-controlled hearing system boosts attended talker
Current hearing aids amplify every sound in a noisy room rather than the person a listener wants to hear. Using intracranial EEG in neurosurgical patients, researchers built a closed-loop system that decodes which talker a listener is attending to and amplifies that voice in real time. Across multiple experiments it improved speech intelligibility, reduced listening effort and was consistently preferred by subjects, and it followed both instructed and self-initiated shifts of attention.
March 2019
Vanderbilt Uses Post-Op CT Scans to Guide Cochlear Implant Programming
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has developed a method that uses post-operative CT scans and image processing to determine the physical relationship between cochlear implant electrodes and the neural interface, allowing sub-optimally positioned electrodes to be switched off for a customized map. Cochlear implants are surgically implanted devices that restore hearing by electrically stimulating the auditory nerve, and their programming has traditionally ignored where the electrodes actually sit. The trial tested whether this individualized image-guided programming improves hearing and speech outcomes in pediatric recipients, with hearing measures collected at baseline, 12 months and 24 months; it has been completed, but results have not been posted.