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Science & Technology

Will hearing aids ever be as effective as corrective eyewear?

Close-up of a 3D-printed, scaled model of a gerbil cochlea. The cochlea of the inner ear is where incoming sound waves trigger minute vibrations of the hair cells. These vibrations are then converted into neurosignals that are delivered to the brain. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Rochester researcher looks for answers in the mechanics of the inner ear, which includes the cochlea.

Will it ever be possible for hearing aids to compensate for hearing loss to the same degree that eyeglasses and contact lenses correct our vision? Will hard-of-hearing people eventually be able to separate out a single conversation at a crowded party, hearing the voices as clearly as corrective glasses and contact lenses can help us see a single tree in a forest?

Despite recent advances in hearing aids, a frequent complaint among users is that the devices tend to amplify all the sounds around them, making it hard to distinguish what they want to hear from background noise, says Jong-Hoon Nam, a researcher at the University of Rochester.

Nam, a professor of both mechanical and biomedical engineering, believes a key part of the answer to the problem lies inside the cochlea of the inner ear. That’s where incoming sound waves trigger minute vibrations of the hair cells, sensori-receptor cells in the inner ear. These mechanical vibrations are then converted into neurosignals that are delivered to the brain.

“The mission of our laboratory is to explain the precise moment when that conversion happens,” says Nam. That determination could provide the basic science needed for hearing devices to become fully capable of compensating for the unique degrees of hearing loss that occur from one individual to another, and from the left ear to right ear, in each individual.

“No two hearing aids should be the same,” Nam says.

Three researchers in masks pose for a portrait in Jong-Hoon Nam's lab.
“No two hearing aids should be the same,” says Jong-Hoon Nam (center), pictured in his lab with research engineer Jonathan Becker ’15, ’17 (MS) (right) and PhD student Wei-Ching Lin. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Nam’s research has been funded by a recently renewed National Institutes of Health grant, which will total $4 million though 2025, plus nearly $800,000 in National Science Foundation funding. Both grants have helped Nam support seven mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering PhD students and allow him to hire three to four undergraduate research assistants each summer.

His collaborations with colleagues in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, the University of Rochester Medical Center, and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, have resulted in numerous papers. Recent highlights include:

microfluidic chamber used to study cochlear tissue.
Nam’s research group uses a specially designed microfluidic chamber to image cochlear tissue and see what is happening at the cellular level. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Optical coherence tomography spurs quantum leap in hearing research

Nam is using the same tool that helped ophthalmologists achieve major advances in vision correction. Optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique that allows researchers to capture micrometer-resolution, two- and three-dimensional images from within biological tissues.

The technology has provided a quantum leap forward in cochlear research, says Nam, whose lab occupies a unique niche in the field.

Other research groups use the imaging technology to study the vibration of cochlear tissues in live animals. However, the optical beam loses power as it moves through skin and bone. Instead, Nam’s group images the cochlear tissues in a specially designed microfluidic chamber, enabling his group to see what is happening at the cellular level. “We can provide further details that other researchers could not see,” he says.

Other labs also tend to focus on either animal models or computer simulations. As a result, they often encounter difficulty in interpreting the findings of the theoretical simulation groups, and vice versa. “That miscommunication is very costly, and often adds confusion instead of progress in research,” says Nam.

Nam’s lab combines animal models and computer simulations. As a result, “we can be more confident in our findings; we can make new hypotheses that otherwise could not be tested,” Nam says.

Hearing devices have improved during the last decade or so. The latest digital hearing aids, for example, have automatic features that can adjust the volume and programming for improved hearing in different environments. Moreover, Apple’s latest generation of attractive bidirectional earplugs have reduced the stigma of wearing hearing aids, even among young people.

“Now it looks cool,” Nam says. However, these hearing devices still fall short of the performance standards that have been achieved in correcting vision.

According to Nam, there is still a long road ahead. But the new imaging and computer modeling technologies make this an exciting time for cochlear research, offering the promise of a comparable quantum leap in more effective aids and implants for the hearing impaired.


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