SYMPOSIUM ON COCHLEAR IMPLANTS. II. FEASIBILITY OF MULTICHANNEL SCALA TYMPANI STIMULATION.*t

Given the survival of the acoustic nerve, it can be stimulated. It has been known for many years that sound sensation is evoked by its direct stimulation. The basis of any acoustic prosthesis is that one can electrically generate a message to the brain that, by virtue of the central connections of the acoustic nerve, will produce the sensation of sound. The reasoning behind current efforts to develop acoustic prostheses is that one can generate some facsimile of the normal input that the acoustic nerve receives when stimulated with normal sounds, and thereby generate sensation that constitutes a facsimile of normal sound sensation. That is our basic modus operandi, i.e., to attempt to generate an input to the brain that is a facsimile of the input generated by corresponding sound.