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SALT LAKE CITY -- Can light fix your hearing? Researchers at the University of Utah have made some surprising discoveries with infrared light that might help the cells in your inner ear send signals to your brain.
The light researchers at the University of Utah used is nothing like the light that comes from the flashing bulbs you see on those devices that claim to relieve pain on late night infomercials.
"You cannot see it with your eye," said Dr. Richard Rabbitt, a bioengineering professor at the University of Utah. "It's actually, technically not called ‘light.' It's technically called ‘infrared radiation.' It's more like a heat lamp."
In the ear, it turns out those neurons send signals to the brain up to 400 times per second. We've been able to get them, with this laser, to send signals to the brain up to about 100 times per second.
–Dr. Richard Rabbitt
Whatever you call it, it seems to have a big effect on certain kinds of cells. Rabbitt says they've seen extremely short bursts of this radiation excite the mitochondria in cells in the inner ear of toadfish.
"They pull calcium out of the cytosol and then they release it back into [the cytosol]. It's sort of like sucking it in and then belching it out," he said.
Calcium plays a signaling role in these inner ear cells.
"In the ear, it turns out those neurons send signals to the brain up to 400 times per second," Rabbitt said. "We've been able to get them, with this laser, to send signals to the brain up to about 100 times per second."
This could help technicians improve cochlear implants in deaf people, and it may have a major role in treating people with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders. The radiation has a similar effect on heart muscle cell in rats, making them contract. They're planning to see what other kinds of cells it can work on.
Rabbitt said, "Our main targets we're looking at, right now, are the retina and deep brain stimulation, so, neurons in the brain."
But even though these findings are promising, Rabbitt says researchers at the University of Utah and at Northwestern still have a lot of research left to do. They need to determine if long-term exposure to this radiation can do any damage to the stimulated mitochondria.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
