An exciting opportunity to join a patient-informed research group at USAIS
The Auditory Implant Service would like to work with patients and carers to improve our service and provide an opportunity for members to develop and contribute to research in the areas in which we work.
Patients and carers who are interested will join a group. Members of the group, who would like to, will be able to take part in events and join a Microsoft Teams site to discuss areas of interest and read about research opportunities.
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Electro-Haptic Stimulation: A New Approach for Improving Cochlear-Implant Listening
Carl Verschuur and Mark Fletcher have written a paper about Electro-Haptic devices in their new paper "Electro-Haptic Stimulation: A New Approach for Improving Cochlear-Implant Listening."
Haptic (or tactile) aids for the hearing-impaired, which turn sound into a sensation of touch on the skin, were rendered obsolete in the 1990s by the development and success of cochlear implants.
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PhD Audiology Opportunity: Subarachnoid Haemorrhage, Hearing and Cognition
Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH), a subtype of stroke, is a bleed on the surface of the brain. It has a high fatality rate (approximately 50%) and for those who survive it is often a life altering event. There is increasing recognition that, although people with a history of SAH look outwardly healthy, they have substantial "hidden" disability which impairs their daily functioning.
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Recording of electrode voltages on the surface of head to test for cochlear implant problems
At USAIS we have developed a new, easy-to-use test which measures how current flows from cochlear implants.
The test uses electrodes which are placed on the head of the cochlear implant user.
The test is able to accurately pick up when the current flow within the implant is not normal, such as when the device is not fully inside the cochlea. The test also has the potential to show up other subtler problems with the device.
Please see examples of test results below.
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Sound-location could improve for patients with hearing loss
Hearing aid and cochlear implant (CI) users often struggle to locate and separate sounds. Recent work at Southampton Auditory Implant Service (USAIS) has shown that CI users locate and separate sounds substantially better when additional sound information is provided through haptic stimulation on each wrist.
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Additional stimulation to improve hearing in Cochlear Implant patients
Regular visitors to this site will have seen a series of papers on Haptic Stimulation from the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Services (USAIS). In his latest paper - Using haptic stimulation to enhance auditory perception in hearing-impaired listeners - Mark Fletcher reviews the challenges of building a device to help Cochlear Implant listening.
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How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected implanted patients?
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been many ways in which our lives have changed recently, and we have had to adapt how we live, work and connect with each other.
We would really like to understand how things have changed for our patients.
Please fill out this survey to tell us how you have been affected and what the positive and negative aspects of your experiences are.
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