Scientists spread across Europe and the U.S. filed for protection of an implantable electrode array including a plurality of microneedles, which may be implanted into the auditory nerve bundle and stimulate the auditory nerve in response to receiving electrical signals representative of observed sounds.

The human body constantly assaults medical devices that are implanted within it. The traditional solution to that has been to encase them in titanium. But that’s not the best option in the brain, where it remains difficult to place a high number of electrodes without damaging the brain, while protecting the device from long-term damage.