Project description
Improving hearing in cochlear implant users
For adults with cochlear implants (CI), clinical studies show that considerable variability and large individual differences exist in speech recognition outcomes. This decreases quality of life and prevents CI users from engaging more in society, maintaining social bonds with friends and family, and retaining independency and jobs. The EU-funded MOSAICS project will investigate and identify the problems faced by adult CI users. It will bring together experts from engineering, neuroscience, biophysics, psychology and sociology. The project will focus on various levels – from cochlea to brainstem and auditory cortex – to assess the effect of cognition on CI performance and vice versa. MOSAICS will also study the societal effects of improving audition and communication after implantation.
Objective
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that 6.1% of the world’s population – 466 million people – has disabling hearing loss, and approximately one-third of people over 65 years of age are affected by it. For people with severe to profound hearing loss, a cochlear implant (CI) is the preferred treatment. However, one of the hallmarks of adult CI outcomes is the enormous variability reported in auditory, speech and language functioning after implantation. Enhanced performance in adult CI users will increase quality of life and allow them to engage more in society, uphold social bonds, independency and jobs.
The scope of the MOSAICS European Industrial Doctorate (EID) is to understand, predict, identify, and intervene within in the variation of adult CI users by making use of a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together experts from engineering, neuroscience, biophysics, psychology and sociology. Research will be targeted at levels ranging from cochlea to brainstem and auditory cortex, in order to assess the effect of cognition on the performance with CI and vice versa. In addition, societal effects of improving audition and communication after implantation will be investigated.
The MOSAICS research and training programme is jointly managedan EID driven by Cochlear, the largest global manufacturer of hearing implants, and the Radboud University Medical Centre, hosting Europe’s leading academic groups in hearing related research, as beneficiaries. Their expertise is complemented by several partner organisations, including four other research groups, two highly specialized SMEs and the European patient organization for cochlear implant users. Synergiesy between both industry and academic partners will enable four early stage researchers ESRs to contribute to the hearing-related innovations and to face the challenges within adult CI care during the entire hearing journey within a highly productive, engaging, and exciting training network.
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Coordinator
2800 Mechelen
Belgium