Research
Cochlear Implant Research
In cochlear implants, large performance variations still exist among patients. In an attempt to better understand cochlear implant performance levels, the Iowa cochlear implant team has proposed innovative research protocols that have led to many research milestones.
These milestones include:
- Becoming the first center to provide bilateral implantation to adult patients
- Implementing combined electric and acoustic stimulation
- Using high-rate stimulation to better replicate the normal cochlea
- Developing technology to measure the action potential of the auditory nerve
In addition, the Iowa team has one of the largest longitudinal databases tracking the listening, speaking, and language development in children and adults and has been expanded to include:
- A music perception project that focuses on investigating novel signal-processing schemes to determine if music perception and appreciation can be enhanced
- An infant–toddler perception project that investigates how children under the age of 18 months with a cochlear implant perceive sounds
Tinnitus Research
Our center received the largest clinical–trial grant to study tinnitus in the history of the National Institutes of Health. UI researchers are comparing different versions of treatments that have been reported to help 80 percent of those with tinnitus. The study examines the effectiveness of approaches that combine low–level background sounds, including music, with a new, extensive counseling protocol.
Molecular Otolaryngology and Renal Research Laboratory
The Molecular Otolaryngology Laboratory has discovered the largest number of genes associated with hearing loss. A clinical laboratory service offers the most extensive gene mapping for identifying causes of hearing loss and deafness in the United States.
The Iowa Center for Auditory Regeneration
The Center is designed to create and develop new therapeutic regimens to treat persons with hearing loss. The Center brings together investigators in the Departments of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Speech Pathology and Audiology, Biology, Physiology and Biophysics, Neurosurgery, Radiology, and the College of Engineering.
This multidisciplinary team of investigators with similar research interests will search for significant advancements in the treatment of neurosensory hearing loss.
Stories of Hope
Significant Contribution
Four of John and Allie Dane's five children suffer from hearing losses due to genetic auditory nerve problems. Doctors from the UI Department of Otolaryngology successfully performed a cochlear implant operation for Donna Dane—who was born profoundly deaf–partially restoring her hearing.
The Danes wanted to help the UI serve others in need, so they donated Iowa farmland to help create the John Dane Family Cochlear Implant Research Fund.
The Danes' gift supports the research of Bruce J. Gantz, M.D., head of the Department of Otolaryngology. Gantz and his team of physicians and scientists continue to make great strides in stimulating auditory nerve growth and improving hearing through ear implant surgery.
John Dane explained that the research had great personal significance to his family. The potential impact of the research on millions of people with hearing loss who may eventually benefit from the research also appealed to the family.
"I vowed that my family would make a significant contribution," Dane said. "The regeneration of auditory nerves, to me, would be an amazing breakthrough. I get so emotional when I think about it."
Gantz said the fund will help UI researchers test their new ideas–such as a recently designed ear implant that, unlike the cochlear, goes just a short way into the inner ear and can greatly improve hearing in those who are not already entirely deaf.