{"id":3032,"date":"2020-01-21T00:25:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T08:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/scientist-wants-to-help-people-with-hearing-loss-gain-access-to-music\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:32:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:32:46","slug":"scientist-wants-to-help-people-with-hearing-loss-gain-access-to-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/scientist-wants-to-help-people-with-hearing-loss-gain-access-to-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientist wants to help people with hearing loss gain access to music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n Press Release<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Scientist wants to help people with hearing loss gain access to music<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n \n January 21, 2020<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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While cochlear implants restore partial hearing, they can\u2019t compete with the body\u2019s natural hearing ability. Listening to music can be especially frustrating because tunes sound muffled and the implant makes it difficult to identify individual instruments or vocalists.<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\r\n\r\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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When Ray Goldsworthy was 13, he contracted spinal meningitis. Antibiotics saved his life but destroyed the cells in his inner ears responsible for processing sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin the span of one to two weeks, I went from hearing normally to being completely deaf,\u201d said\u00a0Goldsworthy<\/a>, an associate professor of research otolaryngology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.<\/p>\n

A year later, in 1988, he became one of the first children in the United States to receive a cochlear implant through a pediatric trial.<\/p>\n