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The most common cause of deafness is damage to the sensitive hair cells of the inner ear (cochlea), known as sensorineural hearing loss.

 

For people with the most severe hearing loss, the only therapeutic intervention available is the cochlear implant.

 

Research at the Bionics Institute is aimed at improving the performance of the cochlear implant through developing techniques to improve the function of the hearing nerve, sound processing research to enhance the perception of music and speech, and investigation of how the brain responds to long-term artificial stimulation.