A. James Hudspeth

Have you ever wondered how hearing actually works? In our inner ear, tiny hairs, the sensory receptors of our ear, pick up sound energy, convert it into electrical impulses and pass it on to our brain. Neuroscientist A. James Hudspeth has discovered that these hairs not only passively receive the signals, but also mechanically amplify the sound waves – by a factor of a thousand! If they are damaged, there is a risk of hearing loss or even deafness. Hudspeth and his team are working on methods to regenerate injured hairs and thus give patients their hearing back. In his lecture, he explains how a cochlear implant works, how inner ear hairs can be restored and why hearing is such a fascinating process.

A. James “Jim” Hudspeth is the F. M. Kirby Professor and Director of the Sensory Neuroscience Laboratory at The Rockefeller University. He received his doctorate from Harvard in 1973 and from Harvard Medical School in 1974. Among many other honors, Hudspeth is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2018 he received the Kavli Prize for Neuroscience.

Language: English