Soft brainstem implant offers new hope for restoring hearing

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneApr 18 2025Over the last couple of decades, many people have regained hearing functionality with the most successful neurotech device to date: the cochlear implant. But for those whose cochlear nerve is too damaged for a standard cochlear implant, a promising alternative is an auditory brainstem implant (ABI). Unfortunately, current ABIs are rigid implants that do not allow for good tissue contact. As a result, doctors commonly switch off a majority of the electrodes due to unwanted side effects such as dizziness or facial twitching-leading most ABI users to perceive only vague sounds, with little speech intelligibility.Now, a team at EPFL's Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces has developed asoft,thin-filmABI. The device uses micrometer-scale platinum electrodes embedded in silicone, forming a pliable array just a fraction of a millimeter thick. This novel approach, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, enables better tissue contac...