Sensory substitution offers a promising approach to restore lost sensory functions.
Here we show that spinal cord stimulation (SCS), typically used for chronic pain management,
can potentially serve as a novel auditory sensory substitution device. We recruited
13 patients undergoing SCS implantation and translated everyday sound samples into
personalized SCS patterns during their trial phase. In a sound identification task-where
chance-level performance was 33.3%-participants ( n=8 ) achieved a mean accuracy of
72.8% using only SCS input. We observed a weak positive correlation between stimulation
bitrate and identification accuracy. A follow-up discrimination task ( n=5 ) confirmed
that reduced bitrates significantly impaired participants' ability to distinguish
between consecutive SCS patterns, indicating effective processing of additional information
at higher bitrates. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of using existing SCS
technology to create a novel neural interface for a sound prosthesis. Our results
pave the way for future research to enhance stimulation fidelity, assess long-term
training effects, and explore integration with other auditory aids for comprehensive
hearing rehabilitation.
