Auditory Prostheses

Cochlear implants, which are electronic devices that are surgically implanted to the cochleas of patients with profound sensorineural hearing loss, have provided hearing to those patients through electrical stimulations. The goals of Li Xu, associate professor of rehabilitation and communication sciences, and his research group are to understand the mechanisms of electrical hearing and to identify ways to improve the function of the auditory prostheses. In particular, using signal processing techniques, Xu's team is trying to identify features of stimulation that are important for speech perception, tone perception, and music perception in patients with cochlear implants. Meanwhile, in collaboration with physicians in Beijing, Xu is studying the tone perception and production development in native tone-language-speaking children with cochlear implants.