Restoring Hearing: Auditory Nerves Can Be Regrown

"People with cochlear implants do well with understanding speech, but their perception of pitch can be poor, so they often miss out on the joy of music," says UNSW Professor Gary Housley, who is the senior author of the research paper.

"Ultimately, we hope that after further research, people who depend on cochlear implant devices will be able to enjoy a broader dynamic and tonal range of sound, which is particularly important for our sense of the auditory world around us and for music appreciation," says Professor Housley, who is also the Director of the Translational Neuroscience Facility at UNSW Medicine.