ABSTRACT
Beginning in the 1960s, interest was generated among auditory physiologists, engineers, and otologists in devising implantable electronic hearing devices for the restoration of hearing. The idea perhaps first was conceived around 1800 when Alesandro de Volta inserted two metal electrodes, from the electrolytic cell he discovered, into his ear canals and reported a bubbling sensation. Nevertheless, attempts over the next 50 years to
understand the phenomenon were sporadic. In the mid-1800s, alternating current was tested, to no avail. Wever and Bray, in 1930, reported that the electrical response recorded in the vicinity of the auditory nerve of a cat was similar in frequency and amplitude to the sounds to which the ear had been exposed.
