Dr. Konstantina Stankovic

Well, those who are musically trained, they tend to do better in terms of their appreciation of music after cochlear implantation.

On average, people cannot really appreciate music after cochlear implantation on average.

They can appreciate rhythm, but not tonality of it.

But there are those who can.

They can actually go back to playing the instruments they were playing.

And we definitely now have growing evidence that the more you train your brain to be sensitive to different inputs, which in this case includes music,

It's a really interesting question.

There is a splitting of the senses.

I think integrating senses is really important, and we already know that.

There are people who, if they lose their hearing, they are devastated.

They really can't function.

And there are others who adopt to it.

We think that it has to do with sensory integration.

Those who are

really reliant on one sense, if they lose it, then they can't function well.

But those who have exercised various senses, then the other senses can pitch in to fill the gap.

I think it's going to be a fascinating world, and the popularity of podcasts highlights the growing interest in the auditory system.

And in fact, I was talking to a colleague whose son is now applying to colleges, and the colleague was really concerned because he never saw his son studying and said, I don't know how you'll do, and the son nailed the exam.

And so the question was, when did you study?

I've never seen you read a book.