Performance of Some of the Better Cochlear-Implant Patients

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to provide an independent corroboration of open-set word recognition in some of the better cochlear-implant patients. These included the Chorimac, Nucleus (one group from the U.S.A. and one group from Hannover, Germany), Symbion, Duren/Cologne and 3M/Vienna implants. Three experiments are reported: (1) word recognition in word lists and in sentences; (2) environmental sound perception, and (3) gap detection. On word recognition, the scores of 6 Chorimac patients averaged 2.5% words and 0.7% words in sentences correct in the French tests. In the German tests, the scores averaged 17% words and 10% words in sentences for 10 Duren/Cologne patients, 15% words and 16% words in sentences for 9 3M/Vienna patients, and 10% words and 16% words in sentences (3% to 26%) for 10 Nucleus/Hannover patients. In the English tests, the scores averaged 11% words and 29.6% words in sentences for l0 Nucleus-U.S.A. patients, and 13.7% words and 35.7% words in sentences for the 9 Symbion patients. The ability to recognize recorded environmental sounds was measured with a closed set of 18 sounds. Performance averaged 23% correct for Chorimac patients, 41% correct for 3M/Vienna patients, 44% correct for Nucleus/Hannover patients, 21% correct for Duren/Cologne patients, 58% correct for Nucleus/U.S.A. patients, and 83% correct for Symbion patients. A multidimensional scaling analysis suggested that patients were, in part, utilizing information about the envelope and about the periodic/aperiodic nature of some of the sounds. Gap detection thresholds with a one-octave wide noise centered at 500 Hz varied widely among patients. Typically, patients with gap thresholds less than 40 ms showed a wide range of performance on speech perception tasks, whereas patients with gap-detection thresholds greater than 40 ms showed poor word recognition skills.