Institutional development · Research, innovation and assessment · Germany
Göttingen-led team reports more distinguishable nerve signals from optical cochlear implants in animals
Researchers led by University Medical Center Göttingen report that, in an animal model, optical cochlear implants triggered nerve signals that were easier to distinguish than those from conventional electrical implants.
Why it matters: Research teams working on cochlear implants have a newly published animal-model comparison of optical and electrical stimulation from a Göttingen-led group.
Researchers led by the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) report that, in an animal model, optical cochlear implants produced nerve signals that were easier to tell apart than those from conventional electrical implants.
According to the team, up to ten different light-emitting diodes were able to trigger distinct nerve signals using very low amounts of light energy.
The results have been published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
For researchers developing cochlear implants, the UMG-led team reports that optical stimulation with up to ten LEDs produced more distinguishable nerve signals than electrical implants in an animal model, with the results now published in EMBO Molecular Medicine.
