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    Insight into What It’s Like

    Following an excellent post on cochlear implants by Teresa Blankmeyer Burke over at Feminist Philosophers is a comment pointing the reader to this interview, which may be of interest to NewAPPS readers. Of particular interest is William Mager's attempt to describe his experience of sound with the new implants. Here are a few key passages:

    “It’s not sound. It’s beeping. But It doesn’t feel like sound. It feels like some kind of electronic trigger is going on in your brain.” (at around 4:27)

    And then, when William is asked to recognize a particular sound, which happens to be church bells sounding the time, he says:

    “Ok what I am hearing is a period of silence and then I hear a loud pulse sound and then its followed by another silence and then another loud pulse. It’s kind of rhythmic. I have no idea what that could be.” (at around 7:15)

    He tries to explain the phenomena:

    “A lot of people will say for the first few months, the sensations are like pulses. And then in about two or three months it could be that what you’re hearing is equivalent normal sounds that you can hear.” (at around 8:30)

    It would be great to hear other such reports of these phenomena. If readers of NewAPPS know of any such reports, please list them in the comments. 

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    6 responses to “Insight into What It’s Like”

    1. Sylvia Avatar
      Sylvia

      I used to teach a course about bioelectronics and we had an afternoon with guest speakers to introduce the cochlear implant. One of the doctors had a simulation to let us experience what you could hear by the older and newer versions of the implant (newer ones have more frequency channels) and asked us to imagine having a conversation in a crowded room like this. Of course, this is just a rough approximation of what it is like.
      Two weeks ago, I heard a man on the Belgian Radio 1 testify about his life before and after receiving a cochlear implant. (Link with audio in Dutch.)
      He talked about his isolation when he went deaf (“that is not living”).
      His first experiences with the implant were not too promising: he heard a lot of noise, and everything sounded hollow, retarded, far away – like listening through a tube. He didn’t mention pulses, but he did say that no doctor could predict what he would be able to hear, which suggests that each case is unique.
      Shortly after receiving the implant, he heard a song by The Beatles on the radio and was curious who was covering the song. It turned out to be the original version, but he just couldn’t recognize it as such. Now, after a longer time with the implant, he hears The Beatles’ songs again like he heard them in his youth.
      He regards the implant as an aid, not a full solution. For instance, he is now following a course of lipreading. Nevertheless, the implant has made a huge, positive impact on his life (“I live again”).

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    2. Carolyn Dicey Jennings Avatar
      Carolyn Dicey Jennings

      This sounds like a cool class! Thanks for sharing.

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    3. Ed Nixon Avatar
      Ed Nixon

      I am a “late-deafened” adult who was trained and then worked as a professional musician through the decade of my 20s. I lost hearing in my left ear gradually and progressively over the course of that decade; much later, I lost hearing in my right ear suddenly and cataclysmically one evening while making dinner. I used hearing aids — largely unsuccessfully in a office/business context — for 10 years until I received 1 cochlear implant on the left side and then, about 5 years later, one on the right side.
      First of all, the transformation from hearing with hearing aids to experiencing sound with one cochlear implant was radical; the change from one implant to two was miraculous. I think it’s important to make a distinction between sound and signal in this context: normally, people hear sounds; one the other hand, implant recipients are provided with and experience signals — sound simulations. The physical ear is, by and large, merely the housing for the electronics. Its natural functioning has been severely damaged or destroyed.
      I can say that the initial experience of sound/signal was somewhat artificial or “robotic.” However, my ability to comprehend what was going on around me was immediately and radically improved. Experiencing sound in stereo, which I had not done for almost 20 years, was like coming home.
      I have been a very successful implant recipient. I think this is largely because of the many years of music training I received as a child and young adult. Consequently, my mind — I prefer that usage over “brain” — has been able to adapt, to naturalize the experience. To a large degree, I perceive my environment much as I did when I had ears. While I don’t experience music in such a way that I would consider returning to the business, I do compose electronic music — a minor miracle. I suppose the conventions of electronic music, i.e., its timbres, gestures and distinctive (dis)organization, are more in tune (so to speak) with the Signal life. (Needless to say there are a number of very interesting philosophical questions that arise when one lives or creates within the intersection of two, for all intents and purposes, irreconcilable experiential realms. Or so I think at any rate.)
      …edN

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    4. Carolyn Dicey Jennings Avatar
      Carolyn Dicey Jennings

      A fascinating description, Ed! Do you think of the signals as a different sense modality or not like sensing at all?

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    5. Diogenes Avatar
      Diogenes

      Here’s an historical example from Helen Keller. She “listened” to Beethoven’s 9th performed by the New York Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall over the radio by placing her hand on it and noting the vibrations. There’s also a link in the description which has a letter she wrote describing her “view” from on top of the Empire State building.
      http://www.lettersofnote.com/2014/03/my-heart-almost-stood-still.html

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    6. Ed Nixon Avatar
      Ed Nixon

      Carolyn, apologies for the delay in replying; I came back to this page just on a whim.
      I think what I was trying to say is that sound no longer exists for me except perhaps as experienced in the same way Helen Keller did. If sound no longer exists, then I suppose I’m alienated from music because I don’t / can’t experience in the ‘natural’ or normal way. I sense my friends and acquaintances from the days I was in the music business are both skeptical and suspicious of my music making. By and large, they are performers using conventional, acoustical instruments. Their entire lives have been dedicated to making sound in accordance with the narrow technical conventions of music, i.e., in tune, in time and with a timbre that is consistent with tradition, whichever tradition they belong to. I can’t belong to that culture. In a major way, I can’t belong to any musical culture for which sound is the basis. Even though I do create sound in my compositions, I will never experience them as such.
      I think John Cage is the main liberator for me because of his articulate re-framing of what music is. Arthur C. Danto, in his earlier writings around Warhol and the Art World, provides me with the beginnings of a narrative about what I think I’m up to. Where I might fit.
      Incidentally, apropos of vibrations and the body, you may be interested to know about a Scottish percussionist named Evelyn Glennie who has a major international music career touring and performing with symphony orchestras. She is also deaf. <“>http://www.evelyn.co.uk/&gt;
      …edN

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