What if your brain could hear what your ears cannot?  

The Problem

• Over 70 million Americans live with hearing loss, driving more than $200 billion per year in medical costs, lost wages, and reduced productivity. 
• Age-related hearing loss is the second most common health problem in older adults, and even today’s best hearing aids and implants often fail in noisy, real-world settings. 
• Current devices react only to external sound, not to what the listener wants to focus on, making speech hard to follow in restaurants, parties, and workplaces. 
• Hearing loss is usually treated as an ear problem, rather than as a neurological condition in the auditory cortex—the brain region that separates speech from noise and reconstructs what we hear. 

The Solution

The HEARING (Hearing Enhancement through ARtificially Intelligent NeurotechnoloGy) program will advance three technical areas: intracortical device(s), dynamic sound modulation, and auditory read & write algorithms. 

Together, these components are intended to: 

• Adjust sound based on what the listener wants to hear, rather than just what is loudest. 
• Reduce background noise in real time in complex, real-world environments. 
• Fill in missing sound information so that speech becomes clearer and listening becomes more effortless. 

Only ARPA-H can...

• Reimagine hearing loss as a neurological condition and build the first-ever, minimally invasive, brain-driven hearing system that works in partnership with the auditory cortex. 
• Create platform technologies that could reduce social isolation, depression, and cognitive decline associated with hearing loss—especially for older adults, veterans, and workers in high-noise occupations.