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. 2013 Oct;123(10):4102-6.
doi: 10.1172/JCI72707. Epub 2013 Sep 9.

Hearing restoration: Graeme Clark, Ingeborg Hochmair, and Blake Wilson receive the 2013 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award

Hearing restoration: Graeme Clark, Ingeborg Hochmair, and Blake Wilson receive the 2013 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award

Corinne Williams. J Clin Invest. 2013 Oct.
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The recipients of the 2013 Lasker∼DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.
Graeme Clark (left) of the University of Melbourne, Ingeborg Hochmair (center) of MED-EL, and Blake Wilson of Duke University (right) have been honored for their contributions to the development of the modern cochlear implant.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Place coding in the cochlea is important for sound frequency (pitch) discrimination.
Perceived pitch of a sound depends on the location in the cochlea that the sound wave stimulated. High-frequency sound waves, which correspond to high-pitched noises, stimulate the basal region of the cochlea (red). Low-frequency sound waves are targeted to the apical region of the cochlear structure and correspond with low-pitched sounds (purple). Therefore, it is important for the cochlear implant electrode array to provide stimuli at multiple positions along the length of the cochlea.
Figure 3
Figure 3. The modern cochlear implant.
Sound is detected by the microphone (i), which in this illustration is integrated into a behind-the-ear processing unit (ii). The processing unit translates sound into a digital signal that is passed from the transmitter (iii) to the internal receiver stimulator (iv). The receiver stimulator decodes sound information from the processing unit into electric stimuli that are delivered to the cochlea via an electrode array (v). Electric signals from the cochlea are transmitted to the brain by the auditory nerve (vi).

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