[ad_1]
Madrid, (EFE) – A new light-based cochlear implant has proven useful for restoring auditory responses in one type of rodent, which could form the basis for a new generation of patients. Implants transmitting sounds with more precision than traditional devices.
The study provided a proof of concept (which serves to verify that a theory can be exploited in a useful way) that the combination of optical stimulation with genetic manipulation can restore the perception of sound.
The team, led by Christian Wroberl of the German University of Göttingen, used optogenetics, a method that combines optical and genetic methods, to achieve his published experience today. in Translational Medicine.
Read: Hearing loss is presented more in smokers
Worldwide, there are around 360 million people with hearing loss and traditional cochlear implants can The hearing ability of many of them by stimulating the ear cells with electrical signals.
However, the ability of these devices to transduce (transform one type of signal into another) sound in noisy environments can be hindered. 19659003] Experts devised a light-based cochlear implant that "could potentially produce precise spatial stimulation of ear cells," notes the study.
The experiments were conducted on adult gerbils (rodents) whose cochlea is greater than that of other rodents and detects the lowest frequencies that a person would hear.
Animals were trained to jump an obstacle after hearing an alarm and then scientists injected a virus with a gene capable of encoding a light-sensitive ion channel in the cochlea, to allow their neurons in this region to Be activated by the light.
They also implanted in the cochlea of the rodent optical fiber to emit light signals, explains the study.
Gerbils with this implant jumped the obstacle when the cochlea cells were stimulated with a blue light instead of the alarm, "suggesting that the animals recorded light stimulation as a sound.
In a subsequent test, the authors induced deafness in a group of rodents carrying the implant and found that these gerbils could no longer hear the alarm. Be subjected to optical stimulation, "which indicates that the implant has managed to recover the auditory response in animals."
Photo taken from Telemetro
Related News
SEE MORE
[ad_2]
Source link
