Effect of cochlear implantation on voice fundamental frequency in post-lingually deafened adults.
The present study addresses the effect of cochlear implantation on the voice fundamental frequency at which 20 post-lingually deafened Dutch subjects utter speech materials. All subjects received the Nucleus 22 cochlear implant (3 WSP and 17 MSP processors). Speech recordings were made pre-implantation and three and twelve months post-implantation with the implant switched on and off. The fundamental frequency (f0) was sampled while reading a text. The pre-implantation results show that in some subjects, f0 was too high compared with the range in f0 of normally-hearing subjects. Post-implantation, with the implant switched on, we found that the abnormally high f0 values pre-implantation changed toward the normative values. In addition, post-implantation we found that the range over which f0 varied within a subject while reading the text, the f0 sway, decreased for most subjects who, pre-implantation, had their f0 sway outside the normative ranges, the normative range being defined as the interval between the mean plus/minus one standard deviation of the f0 sway found for normally-hearing subjects. Voice fundamental frequency of post-lingually deafened adults is characterized by large interindividual variability in the pre-implantation f0 values. This large interindividual variability is found also in the effect of cochlear implantation on f0.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
M C
MC
Langereis
A J
AJ
Bosman
A F
AF
van Olphen
G F
GF
Smoorenburg
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D003638:Deafness / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology*