Children with electrodes at the back of their heads? What is going on...?

April 27, 2009 10:32 AM

Why would a child need an electrode / electrical connection port in the back of his skull?

Hello, I'm not sure how even to phrase this, so bear with me ...

On two unrelated occasions, I saw children that had some kind of medical issue. I'm trying to understand what it was, and what was being done to treat it. Google-wise I'm not even sure what search terms to enter.

One child had, in the right rear of his skull, some kind of electrode/electrical connector port. There were some kind of metal connection fingers in the port.

The other child (again, unrelated) I presume had a similar situation. In this case, I think it was the left rear of his skull. But he indeed had something attached to the back of his head, the exterior of the connector was grey plastic; the connector was circular (maybe 2x the diameter of a quarter, roughly speaking). The connector wire went to a small cylinder about the size of an asthma inhaler, then another wire went someplace else. I did not get a real good look.

Both children were pre-teens, maybe 10 years old.

So I ask, what's going on? What malady did these children have? What was being done to treat it?

I'm guessing this is some kind of electronic brain stimulation but otherwise I'm at a loss to imagine what's going on here.

posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey to health & fitness (17 comments total)

Cochlear implant, maybe?
posted by stopgap at 10:35 AM on April 27 [1 favorite has favorites]

Yep. Sounds like a Chochlear implant.
posted by Kimberly at 10:39 AM on April 27

... the exterior of the connector was grey plastic; the connector was circular (maybe 2x the diameter of a quarter, roughly speaking). The connector wire went to a small cylinder about the size of an asthma inhaler, then another wire went someplace else.

Like this?
posted by ryanshepard at 10:44 AM on April 27

Hmm... I did a quick google of the images of this type of item. That indeed sort of looks like it, but in the one case, the boy did not have anything attached to his ear, the photos show not only the connection at the back of the head but something attached behind their ear like a conventional hearing aid (I am unsure if that rules it out or not).

In the other case, the boy was not wearing anything, and nothing was plugged into the port. This boy also did not strike me as being deaf or hard of hearing. There was an adult with him who was interacting with him without sign language and speaking normally. Unless he was a very good lip reader I have difficulty believing he was deaf.
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 10:45 AM on April 27

There are also implants/connections for Bone Conduction Hearing Aids, like this.
posted by RobotNinja at 11:14 AM on April 27

Like this? I think it's what robotninja said.
posted by phrontist at 11:32 AM on April 27

I have difficulty believing he was deaf.

And now you know how well the bone conducting hearing aids work when kids get started with them at a young age.
posted by mudpuppie at 11:33 AM on April 27 [2 favorites has favorites]

That indeed sort of looks like it, but in the one case, the boy did not have anything attached to his ear

Some of them are built in two pieces, with the external, non-implanted piece connected to the skull-implanted piece by a magnet, so you can disconnect the pieces easily. He just wasn't wearing the external piece at that moment.

Unless he was a very good lip reader I have difficulty believing he was deaf.

And the inventor of the cochlear implant just did a little happy jig.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:36 AM on April 27 [5 favorites has favorites]

A friend of mine's daughter as a cochlear implant, and it sounds pretty much like you've described.

I have difficulty believing he was deaf.

Aside from a slight speech impediment, which she's expected to eventually outgrow (she's 3), you'd never know she's completely deaf without it.
posted by mkultra at 12:37 PM on April 27

There are also some implants being used to battle dystonia, but I'm not sure about there being any external/visible ports on the most current ones.
posted by batmonkey at 12:47 PM on April 27

It's also possible he was using a body-worn processor, in which case the part that normally hangs on the ear would be a pager-like device on the belt or shirt. And some (though not all) d/Deaf people speak unaccented English and don't sign. You'd also be surprised how well we can fake it sometimes with just a little bit of lipreading. (I have had a CI for two years; I grew up with hearing aids, and my speech is unaccented.)
posted by spaceman_spiff at 1:26 PM on April 27

Hi all thanks for the input.

But:

you'd never know she's completely deaf without it.

And the inventor of the cochlear implant just did a little happy jig.

And now you know how well the bone conducting hearing aids work when kids get started with them at a young age.

Just so it's clear, the one boy who was communicating just fine with his adult companion, had no apparatus connected to his 'port', which made me wonder if he really was deaf or else he was coping quite well - again w/o any hearing aid.

And now that I think of it, I think the 2nd boy did have something clipped behind his ear (I am getting old & my memory is fuzzier than it used to be).

Anyhow the consensus seems to be this was a C.I. or related technology so I mark as solved.

Thanks.
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 2:02 PM on April 27

Seizures . They are experimenting with electrical impulses to combat epilepsy.
posted by majortom1981 at 2:29 PM on April 27

I saw a kid with one of these last year. I asked his mother whether it was a cochlear implant and she confirmed my guess. She asked me if I'd have known he was deaf and I was glad to be able to tell her that I'd never have known. He was totally unaccented and fluent - chattering away while he was playing, doing impressions of a truck, the works. We live in an amazing age, but I still don't have my flying car and food pills.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:53 PM on April 27

Maybe some sort of shunt? Kids who have problems with congenital fluid buildup in the skull might have a dedicated drainage shunt.
posted by Billegible at 8:35 PM on April 27

Billegible: I don't know a lot about shunts, but my belief (which matches with the few people I know who do have one) is that a shunt drains to elsewhere in the body - I think usually somewhere in the torso. Having it drain outside the body would be a massive PITA in terms of infection control.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 11:00 PM on April 27

My brother has a neural stimulator implanted at the base of his skull. It was an experimental treatment to help with dystonia. It's no longer in use, but safer to leave than remove at this point.
posted by theora55 at 12:02 PM on April 28