Bionic future - Autumn & falling forward

by YankeeJim | October 30, 2010 at 04:55 am

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Officially, November 7th, we will be “falling back,” turning our clocks back one hour for Daylight Savings Time in the US and Canada, at least. Of course, software makes this automatic in computers and electronic controls, so we don’t necessarily think about it, except to sleep in which we can’t do because our body clocks tell us to get up.

Every year for the past several years, for medical reasons, I have found myself in surgery on November 2nd. This year’s surgery is elective in that I am choosing to have a cochlear implant so that I can regain my hearing that is been lost since June. I have described that losing hearing doesn’t mean that it gets really quiet, it doesn’t.

All of the noise that you usually ignore that is in range of your receptors moves to the forefront. The space where human voice and music belongs goes away. All you have to enjoy is noise.

Part of the noise is your internal music that is playing in your brain about which you are normally unaware. Everyone has their music, but until you lose your hearing, you don’t hear it.

Your internal music is repetitive and seems to be in synchronization with your internal system, heart beat and other body chemistry and processes. It is a complex system and makes lots of sound that you don’t hear through your ears, but directly in the brain.

It plays over and over again, the same sound. I bet we all have basically the same sheet of music, however, sometimes it is played by a full orchestra, and other times there are men and women singing. Sometimes it sounds like a rock band, and other times it could be a harpsichord. Nonetheless, it is variations on the same piece, over and over again.

When I receive the cochlear implant, they say that for the first month while healing, I will have a wide open circuit with no control and it will be loud and noisy all of the time, night and day. I am sure that will not be pleasant.

Then, in early December the implant audiologist will install the control device by attaching it to my head. The device must be calibrated and mapped such that my brain hears a new set of sounds directly into the cochlear.

My brain will take its time translating the new sound into words and things that are recognizable. Since I am attached to my brain, I must go along for the ride.

“A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear.

As of April 2009, approximately 188,000 people worldwide had received cochlear implants;[1] in the United States, about 30,000 adults and over 30,000 children are recipients.[2] The vast majority are in developed countries due to the high cost of the device, surgery and post-implantation therapy. A small but growing segment of recipients have bilateral implants (one implant in each cochlea).[3]”