How does a cochlear implant, an “electronic organ” that replaces the cochlea to sense sound, help restore hearing to deaf patients? The cochlear implant is a bionic “replacement” for the human cochlea’s sound-sensing organ. Cochlear implant surgery has the same surgical goal as organ transplant surgery: to restore the function of the damaged organ. However, cochlear implantation is different from organ transplantation. First, cochlear implants do not require removal of the damaged organ (e.g., the cochlea). Instead, the procedure requires maximum protection of the cochlear structure in order for the implanted electrodes to work optimally for hearing. Secondly, cochlear implants are not subject to rejection and, therefore, no immunosuppressive drugs are required after surgery. Therefore, the cochlear implant is considered to be an “electronic organ” that “replaces” the cochlea in the perception of sound, and is used to help patients with severe or profound sensorineural deafness who have poor or ineffective hearing aids to rebuild and restore The cochlear implant is used to help patients with severe or profound deafness, whose hearing aids are ineffective or ineffective, to rebuild and restore their hearing so that they can learn language, enjoy music, and communicate in life. How does a cochlear implant produce hearing? First, the cochlear implant converts external sounds (sound waves) into bioelectric impulses that are safe for the human body, and then transmits these impulses to the inner ear (cochlea) through the electrodes implanted in the cochlear implant and stimulates the auditory nerve fibers at different locations and frequencies in the cochlea. The nerve impulses are transmitted through the auditory pathway to the auditory centers in the cerebral cortex, and finally, after comprehensive analysis and processing by the brain, the sense of hearing is formed. How does a cochlear implant reproduce different frequencies of sound? Because the auditory nerve in different parts of the cochlea correlates with the frequency of sound (see diagram), for example, the bottom of the cochlea receives high-frequency sounds (such as a bird’s call) and the top of the cochlea receives low-frequency sounds (such as a lion’s roar). Modern cochlear implants are able to provide sounds in the frequency range of 70-10000 Hz, thus allowing patients to produce good auditory recognition of sounds such as speech sounds that people normally communicate in their lives from 500-3000 Hz, lower frequency vowel tones, higher frequency sounds of nature such as a brisk wind, and musical instruments with a wide range of frequencies. With the help of a cochlear implant, patients can hear all frequencies of surrounding sounds. With early implantation, most patients are able to understand speech, learn to communicate and work like normal people.