Sensory-Neural Hearing Loss

Hearing impairment due to an abnormality of the functioning of the inner ear, the auditory nerve, or both. The most common form of this impairment involves a degeneration of the hair cells attached to the organ of Corti, a condition which cannot be reversed. However, the recently developed cochlear implant is an electronic device which attempts to simulate the sensory-neural function of the hair cells and restore some degree of hearing acuity.

See: Acoustic Trauma, Hearing Loss, Otology, Presbycusis, Recruitment. Compare: Conductive Hearing Loss.