Skip to content
American Academy of Audiology
  • PRACTICE RESOURCES
    • Practice Guidelines and Standards
    • Coding
    • Medicare/Medicaid
    • Compliance
  • EDUCATION & EVENTS
    • Event Calendar
    • Continuing Education
    • Online Learning and Certificate Programs
    • Research Grants and Scholarships
    • Faculty and Preceptor Resources
  • AAA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
    • Attend
    • Program and Events
    • Exhibit Hall
    • Exhibit and Sponsorship Opportunities
    • About
  • NEWS & PUBLICATIONS
    • News
    • Audiology Today
    • Journal of the American Academy of Audiology
    • Advertising
    • Permissions and Reprints
    • Press and Media Information
  • CAREERS
    • Career Center
    • Certification
    • Become an Audiologist
    • Doctoral Programs in Audiology
    • Recruiting
    • New Professional Toolkit
  • ADVOCACY
    • Legislative and Regulatory Activities
      • State Affairs
      • Federal Affairs
    • Legislative Action Center
    • Government Relations News
  • CONSUMERS
    • What Is an Audiologist
    • Hearing and Balance Symptoms and Conditions
    • Managing Hearing Loss
    • Seniors and Hearing Loss
    • Children and Hearing Loss
    • OTC Hearing Aid
  • ABOUT THE ACADEMY
    • Leadership
    • Committees and Task Forces
    • Honors and Awards
    • Get Involved
    • Sponsorships and Corporate Partners
    • Contact Us
  • MEMBERSHIP
    • Benefits
    • Ethics
    • Member Directory
    • Membership Renewals
FacebookTwitterLinkedinYoutubeInstagram
  • Students
  • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • Renew
American Academy of Audiology
Member Login
  • PRACTICE RESOURCES
    • Practice Guidelines and Standards
    • Coding
    • Medicare/Medicaid
    • Compliance
  • EDUCATION & EVENTS
    • Event Calendar
    • Continuing Education
    • Online Learning and Certificate Programs
    • Research Grants and Scholarships
    • Faculty and Preceptor Resources
  • AAA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
    • Attend
    • Program and Events
    • Exhibit Hall
    • Exhibit and Sponsorship Opportunities
    • About
  • NEWS & PUBLICATIONS
    • News
    • Audiology Today
    • Journal of the American Academy of Audiology
    • Advertising
    • Permissions and Reprints
    • Press and Media Information
  • CAREERS
    • Career Center
    • Certification
    • Become an Audiologist
    • Doctoral Programs in Audiology
    • Recruiting
    • New Professional Toolkit
  • ADVOCACY
    • Legislative and Regulatory Activities
      • State Affairs
      • Federal Affairs
    • Legislative Action Center
    • Government Relations News
  • CONSUMERS
    • What Is an Audiologist
    • Hearing and Balance Symptoms and Conditions
    • Managing Hearing Loss
    • Seniors and Hearing Loss
    • Children and Hearing Loss
    • OTC Hearing Aid
  • ABOUT THE ACADEMY
    • Leadership
    • Committees and Task Forces
    • Honors and Awards
    • Get Involved
    • Sponsorships and Corporate Partners
    • Contact Us
  • MEMBERSHIP
    • Benefits
    • Ethics
    • Member Directory
    • Membership Renewals
August 9, 2022

Gene Therapy and Beams of Light: Better Hearing with Light-Based Cochlear Implants

  • Audiology in the News

Most of us know that cochlear implants (CIs) use electrical signals to stimulate the auditory nerve and send messages to the brain. These signals are interpreted by the user as sound. While technological advances have made CIs even better than ever, they have their limitations when it comes to frequency discrimination.

Most users of CIs can distinguish between 12-22 frequency bands, while an individual with normal pure-tone hearing sensitivity can differentiate between 2,000 different frequencies (Svirsky, 2017). CI recipients continue to want more natural sound, more enjoyment of music, and better comprehension of speech. In fact, after initial stimulation, new CI users often report speech as a “radio out of tune” or sounding like “Mickey Mouse” or “Donald Duck” (Svirsky, 2017). The human brain is highly plastic, however, and the quality and intelligibility of speech improves with appropriate aural therapy and time. 

Optogenetics is a relatively new technique in neuroscience, which relates to light-sensitive proteins in algae that regulate the flow of ions across a cellular membrane. Researchers began taking the genes that coded for these proteins and inserting them into neurons. By shining a light on these genetically altered neurons, they opened their voltage-gated ion channels and would fire or activate. Optogenetics are now being used in experiments worldwide in medical applications like vision restoration and cardiac pacing (Al Idrus, 2016).

Dr. Tobias Moser (2022) and his team at the University Medical Center Göttingen in Germany are working on using light, which doesn’t travel through tissue, to stimulate the auditory nerve. Optogenetics can be used to make cochlear nerve cells light sensitive and then stimulate these nerve cells with beams of low-energy light. This, in turn, could produce much finer auditory sensations than what is available with current CIs.

Sound stimuli could be split up electronically into many more discrete frequency bands, giving users a much richer experience of sound. The proposed device will use tiny light-emitting devices, or LEDs, and requires gene therapy that makes the nerve cells in and around the eighth nerve sensitive to light. Moser and his team introduced a gene into deaf rats that made their auditory nerves more sensitive to light and were able to restore hearing with a 10-channel implant. Their goal is to create an implant with 100 channels. However, it’s still “some years away” from human testing, as the team needs to ensure safety and reliability and find a way to make the LEDs last longer. 

Dr. Tobias and his team are hoping for a future with far better soundscapes and discrimination for deaf and hard of hearing individuals who receive a cochlear implant powered by beams of light

References

Al Idrus A. (2016) Gene therapy could lead to better, light-based cochlear implants. Fierce Biotech (accessed August 1, 2022)

Moser T. (2022) Restoring hearing with beams of light. IEEE Spectrum (accessed August 1, 2022)

Svirsky M. (2017) Cochlear implants and electronic hearing. Physics Today 70:8(52).

Share this

Related Posts

A Virtual Reality System for Delivery of Military-Specific Vestibular Rehabilitation After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: The Praxis Study Protocol

Panic Disorders in Patients with Vestibular Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Ectoderm Barcoding Reveals Neural and Cochlear Compartmentalization

Recent Posts

Audiology in the News

A Virtual Reality System for Delivery of Military-Specific Vestibular Rehabilitation After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: The Praxis Study Protocol

In an article by Alroumi et al. (2025), treatment of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) through the use of virtual reality (VR) system was investigated….

Read More
Government Relations News

From Capitol Hill to Your Clinic: SPAN July Meeting on Medicaid Cuts

The State Policy Advocacy Network (SPAN) will convene again on July 29 for a critical meeting about Medicaid funding. SPAN brings together nationwide audiologists and…

Read More
The White House from the sky
Government Relations News

EHDI Program at Risk

On April 1, President Trump’s administration eliminated the entire branch of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program that works with states to analyze…

Read More
wave-mark

Join the Academy

Academy members receive many benefits for professional development, practice management, and community development.

Become a Member
COMM24-Academy_Website_Graphics-revised_logo(W)

American Academy of Audiology
11480 Commerce Park Drive
Suite 220
Reston, VA 20191

Tel: 703-790-8466
Fax: 703-790-8631

  • Practice Resources
  • Education and Events
  • AAA Annual Conference
  • News and Publications
  • Careers
  • Advocacy
  • About the Academy
  • Consumers and Patients
  • Students
  • Donate
  • Get Involved
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Antitrust Policy and Guidelines
  • Terms of Use Policy
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Sitemap

© Copyright 2025 American Academy of Audiology

Website by Yoko Co

This content is an exclusive benefit for American Academy of Audiology members.

If you’re a member, log in and you’ll get immediate access.

 

Member Login

 

If you’re not yet a member, you’ll be interested to know that joining not only gives you access to top-notch resources like this one, but also invitations to member-only events, inclusion in the member directory, participation in professional forums, and access to patient resources, tools, and continuing education. Join today!

Scroll To Top
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. To learn more, please see our Privacy Policy.Ok