Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) projections, 2.5 billion people will be living with some degree of hearing loss by 2050; of these, at least 700 million will require rehabilitation services. These hearing losses poison daily life, lead to social isolation, and even appear to significantly accelerate the onset of neurodegenerative diseases (early dementia, Alzheimer, etc.). To curb this trend, personal hearing protection remains the main option in noisy workplaces to prevent noise-induced hearing loss, while to manage hearing loss, hearing aids remain the only technology currently available. However, digital hearing protectors, hearing aids and hearables all have the same energy dependency: they either rely on the use of disposable batteries, which are not very ergonomic and have a very high financial and environmental cost, or on rechargeable batteries, which must be recharged relatively frequently, thereby preventing the continuous use of these devices and limiting their adoption in underprivileged living conditions. To remedy these power supply problems of in-ear electronic devices, micro-energy harvesting within the human ear canal through the transformation of the mechanical deformation energy of the earcanal, when subjected to the movements of the jaw, has been successfully demonstrated. However, thermal energy could also be an alternative energy source that would be worth exploring. Furthermore, the cooling or heating of the human ear canal, known as Caloric Vestibular Stimulation (CVS), has very particular physiological properties and is commonly used as a clinical tool to test the vestibulo-ocular reflex. More intriguingly, several studies have recently shown the potential benefits of CVS for migraine treatment, but also its potential, via the stimulation of cerebrovascular dynamics to dampen chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's Disease. As CVS is reported to also increase the secretion of neurotransmitters, the exploration of new wearable device-based embedded therapies for wellness and mental balance applications will also be carried out in the proposed program. The aim of the proposed research program, entitled "In-ear thermal energy harvesting and neurostimulation," is the combined study of in-ear thermal energy micrografting and possible in-ear thermal neurostimulation. The expected outcomes of this research program are new functional prototypes of a thermal harvester, that will be developed and probably patented, and the acquisition of fundamental knowledge on the thermal comfort limits of the human ear. Finally, these devices and knowledge will make possible the exploration of new therapies embedded within wearable devices, ultimately, in the hopes of improving the lives of patients suffering from diseases and disorders of the central nervous system.