据路透社1987年8月27日报道,比利时的耳鼻喉专家们最近研制了一种能使完全耳聋的人恢复听力装置。把16个微小的电极植入人的内耳,这些电极又与含有一个微芯片的袖珍装置相连接,从而达到了分析外界声音并把声音转变成人工刺激神经细胞的电脉冲的目的。比利时的专家们已用该装置使一位50年代服用链霉素而导致耳聋的50岁妇女重新听到了声音。据这位妇女说,她现在听到的声音与耳聋前不同。目前语言治疗学家们正在教她如何翻译这些声音并与人进行正常的交谈。 Reuters reported on August 27, 1987 that Belgium’s otolaryngologists have recently developed a device that will turn a hearing-impaired person completely deaf. Sixteen tiny electrodes are implanted in the human inner ear. These electrodes are in turn connected to a pocket-sized device that contains a microchip. This allows the analysis of external sounds and the conversion of sound into electrical impulses that artificially stimulate nerve cells. Belgian experts have used the device to re-evoke a 50-year-old woman who had been deaf using streptomycin in the 1950s. According to the woman, the sound she now heard was different from her deafness. Currently, speech therapists are teaching her how to translate these sounds and talk to them normally.