Pre-implant evaluation of speech and hearing.
This paper describes an approach taken to predict, in advance of invasive surgery, whether a permanent cochlear prosthesis will serve as an aid to hearing in postlingually deaf adults. Nine subjects were implanted transtympanically with a temporary single-channel round window electrode. Over the course of one week a number of tests were conducted, including (1) the measurement of current thresholds over a range of frequencies for sine, square and biphasic pulse waveforms and minimum detectable gap between a pair of short bursts; (2) the discrimination of elementary speech features of live voice such as interruption, intonation, and stress placement; (3) the recognition of consonants, and (4) speech tracking. Eight subjects were able to appreciate changes in loudness, pitch, duration and temporal gap for frequencies below 1 kHz. All showed significant improvements over listening with high-power hearing aids in discriminating a variety of changes in elementary speech features. It was found that the recognition of consonants and speech tracking was heavily dependent on lipreading.
Abel
S M
SM
Silverman Hearing Research Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada.
Tse
S M
SM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001299:Audiometry / Q000379:methods; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D008085:Lipreading; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests / Q000379:methods; D013067:Speech Perception