Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202-5119, USA.
Restor Neurol Neurosci. 2010;28(2):237-50. doi: 10.3233/RNN-2010-0535.
Cochlear implants (CIs) process sounds electronically and then transmit electric stimulation to the cochlea of individuals with sensorineural deafness, restoring some sensation of auditory perception. Many congenitally deaf CI recipients achieve a high degree of accuracy in speech perception and develop near-normal language skills. Post-lingually deafened implant recipients often regain the ability to understand and use spoken language with or without the aid of visual input (i.e. lip reading). However, there is wide variation in individual outcomes following cochlear implantation, and some CI recipients never develop useable speech and oral language skills. The causes of this enormous variation in outcomes are only partly understood at the present time. The variables most strongly associated with language outcomes are age at implantation and mode of communication in rehabilitation. Thus, some of the more important factors determining success of cochlear implantation are broadly related to neural plasticity that appears to be transiently present in deaf individuals. In this article we review the expected outcomes of cochlear implantation, potential predictors of those outcomes, the basic science regarding critical and sensitive periods, and several new research directions in the field of cochlear implantation.
人工耳蜗（CIs）通过电子方式处理声音，然后将电刺激传输到感音神经性耳聋患者的耳蜗，从而恢复一些听觉感知。许多先天性耳聋的 CI 接受者在言语感知方面达到了高度的准确性，并发展出接近正常的语言技能。后天耳聋的植入物接受者通常在有或没有视觉输入（即唇读）的情况下重新获得理解和使用口语的能力。然而，在人工耳蜗植入后，个体的结果存在很大差异，有些 CI 接受者从未发展出可用的言语和口语技能。目前，对于这种结果巨大差异的原因仅部分了解。与语言结果最密切相关的变量是植入时的年龄和康复时的交流模式。因此，决定人工耳蜗植入成功的一些更重要的因素与神经可塑性有关，而神经可塑性在耳聋个体中似乎是短暂存在的。在本文中，我们回顾了人工耳蜗植入的预期结果、这些结果的潜在预测因素、关于关键和敏感时期的基础科学，以及人工耳蜗植入领域的几个新的研究方向。
