🚀 go-pugleaf

Bob Masta wrote:
>>Have you ever actually experimented with one? 
> No, nor do I feel the need to.  

Oh?

> Since I have relatively normal
> hearing, any experiment would not address the question of
> whether it is stimulating the nerves directly.  If I heard
> anything (which I am not doubting) then it would be due
> to some electroacoustic effect that produces true mechanical
> vibration that is picked up by the cochlea and processed
> by normal hearing mechanisms.  Any claims of direct
> neural stimulation would be pretty hard to prove.

Clearly, if you, as a consequence of some elctrical stimulus, "hear 
something", then there is room for further investigation.

I agree that by now, if there were "paydirt" - an effect that reproduces 
clear sound sensations - then it would be commonly known. It's a bit 
careless to say that "it can never be done", since there have 
historically been many reports of electrically stimulated "hearing" of 
sound. What is missing in our time is a clear undersanding of the modes 
by which such stimuli are successful.

> Think about the fact that cochlear implants *do* have
> the ability to deliver a signal very close to the proper target
> neurons.  In fact, they can deliver multiple different signals.
> Yet they are still a ways away from recreating normal hearing.

Agreed. This only points out the center of sensation; the cochlea. 
Action-at-a-distance is the next step.

There will be many pretenders along the way.

And it will often be case that their claims will be both hard to prove, 
and hard to disprove.

I presume that we are ready for those challenges...

Angelo Campanella