Phonemic resetting versus postural adjustments in the speech of cochlear implant users: an exploration of voice-onset time.

Abstract

Voice-onset time (VOT) was measured in plosive-initial syllables uttered by five cochlear implant users prior to and repeatedly at intervals after activation of their speech processors. In "short-term" experiments, the elicitation set was read after the subject's processor has been off for 24 h, then turned on them off again. Four out of five implant users increased voiceless and/or voiced VOTc (VOT corrected for changes in syllable duration) from preimplant baselines to final recordings made 1-3 years later. Measured acoustic correlates of speech "posture" (average SPL, F0, and low-frequency spectral slope) changed concurrently. Results in the short-term study were largely consistent with the long term. Significant multiple regressions relating changes in VOTc to accompanying changes in postural correlates were found in both studies. This outcome is consistent with hypotheses that predict changes in both VOTc and in postural correlates with the restoration of some hearing and that allow for linkages between the two. Some of the reliable VOTc increases obtained over the long term that were not correlated with postural changes may have been caused directly by auditory validation of articulatory/acoustic relations that underlie synergisms for phoneme production.