Clinical assessment of spectral modulation detection for adult cochlear implant recipients: a non-language based measure of performance outcomes.
OBJECTIVE
Spectral modulation detection (SMD) provides a psychoacoustic estimate of spectral resolution. The SMD threshold for an implanted ear is highly correlated with speech understanding and is thus a non-linguistic, psychoacoustic index of speech understanding. This measure, however, is time and equipment intensive and thus not practical for clinical use. Thus the purpose of the current study was to investigate the efficacy of a quick SMD task with the following three study aims: (1) to investigate the correlation between the long psychoacoustic, and quick SMD tasks, (2) to determine the test/retest variability of the quick SMD task, and (3) to evaluate the relationship between the quick SMD task and speech understanding.


METHODS
This study included a within-subjects, repeated-measures design.


METHODS
Seventy-six adult cochlear implant recipients participated.


RESULTS
The results were as follows: (1) there was a significant correlation between the long psychoacoustic, and quick SMD tasks, (2) the test-retest variability of the quick SMD task was highly significant and, (3) there was a significant positive correlation between the quick SMD task and monosyllabic word recognition.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study represent the direct clinical translation of a research-proven task of SMD into a quick, clinically feasible format.
* Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences Vanderbilt University , Nashville, TN , USA.
René H
RH
Gifford
Andrea
A
Hedley-Williams
Anthony J
AJ
Spahr
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001299:Audiometry; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D032882:Comprehension; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment / Q000295:instrumentation*; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013067:Speech Perception; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult