title: The effect of a multichannel cochlear implant on phoneme perception.
abstract: This study was done to investigate the effects of a multichannel cochlear implant on phoneme perception in Finnish-speaking postlingually deafened adults. Phoneme recognition was studied with 100 prerecorded nonsense syllables (open-set) presented at 70 dB SPL, auditorily only, in a free-field situation. Ten subjects were tested before implantation both with and without a hearing aid (HA), and 3, 6 and 12 months after switching on the implant. Before implantation without a HA, the subjects did not recognize vowels, consonants or syllables. Four of the subjects used a HA before implantation, and the mean recognition scores of these subjects were 34% for vowels, 28% for consonants and 13% for syllables. One year after switching on the implant, the mean recognition scores were 77% for vowels, 66% for consonants and 46% for syllables. According to phonological analysis vowels appear to be easier to perceive than consonants during the first stage after multichannel cochlear implantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Finnish, Saami and Logopedics, University of Oulu. taina.valimaa@oulu.fi
authors.forename: T T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Välimaa
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Sorri
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Löppönen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation; D000328:Adult; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception; D016896:Treatment Outcome