Neuroscientist Dr David Furness speaks to British Society of Audiology

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Posted on 20 May 2013

Dr David Furness described the pros and cons of options for ameliorating deafness in a talk to the London Evening meeting of the British Society of Audiology.

Human hearing is crucial to our social interactions: it can convey emotions and nuances that, all too often, computers cannot convey.  Imagine the awkwardness of the technology - and the personal endeavour by the patient concerned - of learning to use a hearing aid or tolerating the surgery required for a cochlear implant.  Imagine too the bliss of a solution that, like immunisation, forestalls the problem of deafness. 

In a talk to the British Society of Audiology, Dr David Furness, Reader in Life Sciences, described the pros and cons of these options.  He reviewed recent research and the outcomes that have enabled more people to hear again.  He and his group are working on a biological solution to solving this problem, replacing by injection the sensory cells that have gone missing due to age or trauma.  This may seem like a biological solution to hearing loss that all could benefit from by their late 70's, but Dr Furness emphasised the need for a careful approach to such interventions.

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