I was “googling around” today and ran across this cat with a cochlear implant. Apparently, the Ryugo Lab reported on study they conducted in 2005 where congenitally deaf cats were fitted with cochlear implants. The goal was to determine how deafness impacts neurology — specifically “end bulbs.” End bulbs are the small encapsulated bodies at the end of sensory nerve fibers. So, they implanted some cats and studied their brains compared to deaf cats without implants. Based on their observations, they believe that deaf cats were able to repair some of the cats neural pathways. They write:
After 3 months of use, the synapses of auditory nerve fibers in these implanted cats were compared to those of normal hearing cats and congenitally deaf cats of the same age. In short, cochlear implants “rescued” the synapses of the deaf cats.
More importantly, it is a really cute picture. We have two cats, neither of which have cochlear implants. I’m glad our cats were not part of the study, because I am not sure how you get the auditory nerve cross sections shown in the study without making the cat very angry. Probably not a PETA-compatible study.
There are some “cochlear implant controversy” implications of this study as well. The study suggests that the neural pathways of congenitally deaf children “degrade” if they are not implanted. Cochlear implantation is suggested to reverse this effect. Does this mean that parents of deaf children should be “morally obligated” to obtain cochlear implants to prevent this degradation? I am certainly not saying that this is the case, but it sure raises some interesting question for this hotly debated issue.
As always, your comments are welcome.
oops– did you not notice that they were kittens? They specifically chose kittens because they were still developing. The same experiment could not be done in adult cats. This is the entire point, that children’s synapses are developing, and adults (while we know they develop somewhat) are nowhere near as flexible and able to grow easily as those of young kids.
Reread the article.
Yvonne; thanks for your comment. I did notice they were kittens, but I guess my point was not clear (sorry for that). My impression is that there are some people in the deaf community that believe that it is “wrong” to implant a deaf child. Let me be clear that I respect their right to hold that belief.
This study suggests that if you fail to implant a congenitally deaf child neural pathways will degrade. My question is, are parents morally obligated to implant their children to prevent this degradation? I am not taking that position, just asking the question.
My impression, which may be incorrect, is that most of the reluctance to implant deaf newborns is that such implantation steals their identity.
Just a thought. I never had to face this decision. As the parent of a post-lingual hearing child, implantation to restore hearing was a clear choice. I have no idea what I would do as a deaf parent of a deaf baby.