Abstract
BackgroundFor patients with single-sided deafness (SSD), restoration of binaural function via cochlear implant (CI) has been shown to improve speech understanding in noise. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in behavioral performance and cortical auditory responses following cochlear implantation.DesignProspective longitudinal study.SettingTertiary referral center.MethodsSix adults with SSD were tested before and 12 months post-activation of the CI. Six normal hearing (NH) participants served as experimental controls. Speech understanding in noise was evaluated for various spatial conditions. Cortical auditory evoked potentials were recorded with /ba/ stimuli in quiet and in noise. Global field power and responses at Cz were analyzed.ResultsSpeech understanding in noise significantly improved with the CI when speech was presented to the CI ear and noise to the normal ear (p<0.05), but remained poorer than that of NH controls (p<0.05). N1 peak amplitude measure in noise significantly increased after CI activation (p<0.05), but remained lower than that of NH controls (p<0.05) at 12 months. After 12 months of CI experience, cortical responses in noise became more comparable between groups.ConclusionBinaural restoration in SSD patients via cochlear implantation improved speech performance noise and cortical responses. While behavioral performance and cortical auditory responses improved, SSD-CI outcomes remained poorer than that of NH controls in most cases, suggesting only partial restoration of binaural hearing.
Highlights
Speech perception in challenging environments can be difficult even for individuals with normal hearing (NH)
Speech understanding in noise significantly improved with the cochlear implant (CI) when speech was presented to the CI ear and noise to the normal ear (p
For single-sided deafness (SSD)-CI participants, the mean difference in speech reception threshold (SRT) between baseline and 12m was -7.9±5.7 dB for SL-NR, -2.9±4.2 dB for S0-N0, and -4.2±5 dB for SR-NL
Summary
Speech perception in challenging environments can be difficult even for individuals with normal hearing (NH). Head shadow effects can improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at one or another ear, depending on spatial locations of the target and masker [1]. Binaural redundancy can offer an advantage with binaural listening compared to monaural listening with either ear alone when speech and maskers are co-located [2,3,4]. While SSD patients may benefit from head shadow when the SNR is better in the hearing ear, they are unable to benefit from binaural summation [3, 8, 9]. For patients with single-sided deafness (SSD), restoration of binaural function via cochlear implant (CI) has been shown to improve speech understanding in noise. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in behavioral performance and cortical auditory responses following cochlear implantation
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