Frontiers in Neuroscience

Fletcher M.D., Verschuur C. A.

Recent technological advances mean that it is now possible to improve hearing outcomes for people with a cochlear implant (surgical implants for severe to profound deafness) using wrist-worn device that stimulates the sense of touch; this technique – developed at Southampton – is known as electro-haptic stimulation (EHS). This paper provides a definitive “state of the art” overview of EHS, covering its neural basis, its effectiveness in different clinical populations, the optimisation of signal-processing strategies, and the potential to use this exciting new technology to help those who cannot access hearing-assistive technology for biomedical reasons or due to limited healthcare access.

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