Abstract
With 10 cochlear implant (CI) wearers having fully inserted Combi40+ electrodes, acute speech performance test were performed simulating different contact distributions along the cochlea by selectively activating up to 12 stimulation channels. Within patient comparison using monosyllables and sentences in noise as test material showed that cochlear coverage, i.e. the extent of the contact array along the cochlea, is the decisive electrode parameter determining speech performance. With a 30-mm-deep insertion, monosyllable scores improved significantly by 24% over a simulating 20-mm insertion depth. Speech reception thresholds improved by 6.6 dB. No difference in speech understanding was found between 8- and 12-channel configurations, both featuring full cochlear coverage, respectively. It is concluded that deep insertion improves tonotopicity and, due to the larger contact distance, channel separation as well. As a corollary, with deep insertion, the need for coding strategies providing extra channel separation by additional processing is eliminated.
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