Guinea pig cochlea. The CELL: An Image Library.Device: Researchers have for the first time harvested the energy of the inner ear to power a small sensing device. The electric potential of the cochlea operates like a biological battery and is critical for transforming sound pressure waves into the electrical signals sent to the brain. Now, scientists have developed a chip that can harness this electrical energy without interfering with normal hearing, according to their report, published today (November 11) in Nature Biotechnology.
The strategy is “original,” said Michael Holzinger, a chemist at Université Joseph Fourier in France, who was not involved in the project. Many other devices designed to extract power from living organisms use enzymes to convert catalytic energy into electrical energy, but the new chip “just steals a little bit of energy the body produces itself.”
What’s New: The spiraling cochlea of the inner ear is where physical pressure is modified into electrochemical signals. There are two fluids inside the inner ear, separated by a series of tight junctions, and each has a different ion concentration—setting up an electric potential of up to 100 mV.
In order to demonstrate the principle that the inner ear’s energy could be tapped without interfering with hearing, Konstantina Stankovic, ...
