{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1861678,
        "msgid": "chinese-researchers-develop-device-to-help-understand-sound-1784130892",
        "date": "2026-07-15 19:40:49",
        "title": "Chinese researchers develop device to help 'understand' sound",
        "author": "",
        "source": "ANTARA_ID",
        "tags": "",
        "topic": "Technology",
        "summary": "Chinese scientists have unveiled the world's first bionic neural device designed to help the brain 'understand' sound, offering a potential breakthrough for those with hearing loss. The artificial neuromorphic interface, developed at Nankai University, mimics natural auditory encoding to process and transmit meaningful information rather than just amplifying noise. Researchers aim to move beyond conventional cochlear implants, which become ineffective when the auditory nerve is severely damaged, and eventually bring the technology to clinical use.",
        "content": "<p>Researchers in China have developed the world\u2019s first bionic neural\ndevice that enables the brains of individuals with hearing impairments\nto \u2018understand\u2019 sound rather than merely \u2018hear\u2019 it. The device, created\nby a research team from Nankai University in Tianjin, northern China,\noffers a novel electronic substitution and repair approach for hearing\nreconstruction, surpassing conventional cochlear implants. \u2018Currently,\ncochlear implants only address the problem of \u201chearing.\u201d However,\nlimited by fixed time-signal-based mechanisms and a restricted number of\nelectrodes, cochlear implants still lag far behind the natural auditory\nsystem in terms of temporal resolution and speech recognition in complex\nacoustic environments,\u2019 said Xu Wentao, who led the research at the\nSchool of Electronic and Optical Engineering, in a Nankai University\npress release on Monday. \u2018Our goal is not just to make the system\ncapable of \u201chearing,\u201d but to enable it to truly \u201cunderstand\u201d sound,\nmeaning it can select, process, and transmit valuable auditory\ninformation like natural nerves,\u2019 he said, adding that the new device\nmarks a significant step in hearing restoration from \u2018restoring\nperception\u2019 to \u2018rebuilding function.\u2019 The study, titled \u2018An artificial\nneuromorphic interface for auditory recovery,\u2019 was published online on 1\nJuly in the journal Nature Materials. According to the research, hearing\ndepends not only on the ear but also on the auditory nerve, which acts\nlike a \u2018superhighway\u2019 transmitting sound signals to the brain.\nSensorineural hearing loss, a type of deafness caused by damage to this\npathway, affects approximately 3 per cent of the global population.\nTraditional cochlear implants can convert sound into electrical signals\nbut still rely on the patient\u2019s remaining auditory nerve to complete the\nfinal transmission process. Once the auditory nerve is severely damaged\nor lost, \u2018even the most advanced cochlear implants become ineffective,\u2019\nXu said, adding that this long-standing challenge is what his team\u2019s\nbreakthrough seeks to overcome. The new device, described as a\n\u2018neuromorphic interface\u2019 that mimics the natural encoding processes of\nbiological auditory nerves, integrates sound acquisition, neural\nencoding, semantic processing, and bioelectric output into a complete\nartificial neural loop. The research team explained that the device not\nonly captures sound but also filters, analyses, and encodes it in a\nmanner resembling the natural auditory system before conveying\nmeaningful information to the brain. \u2018Going forward, we will continue\nour research in the fields of neural repair and bionic intelligence, and\nwork hard to move our core technology from the laboratory to clinical\nuse and the market,\u2019 Xu said. \u2018We hope to achieve more breakthroughs in\nneural prosthetics, smart healthcare, brain-computer interfaces, and\nembodied intelligence,\u2019 he added.<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/chinese-researchers-develop-device-to-help-understand-sound-1784130892",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}