Cochlear implant performance and electrically-evoked auditory brain-stem response characteristics.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to find a correlation between cochlear implant performances in phoneme discrimination and activity of the brain-stem.


METHODS
Electrically-evoked auditory brain-stem responses (EABRs) and speech recognition performances were measured in 17 patients implanted with an MXM Digisonic DX10 cochlear implant. Speech recognition performances without lip-reading were tested using lists of isolated French words containing 3 phonemes.


RESULTS
The results indicated statistically significant correlations between phoneme correct-identification scores and the following EABR variables: wave V latency, wave II-V latency interval and wave III-V latency interval. These results, indicate that up to about 48% of the variance in isolated word recognition without lip-reading can be accounted for by EABR variables.


CONCLUSIONS
The quality of brain-stem functioning influences central processes in phoneme discrimination.
Gallégo
S
S
UPRESA-CNRS 5020, Pavillon U. Hôpital E. Herriot, Lyon, France.
Frachet
B
B
Micheyl
C
C
Truy
E
E
Collet
L
L
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*