title: Binaural enhancement for bilateral cochlear implant users.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Bilateral cochlear implant (BCI) users receive limited binaural cues and, thus, show little improvement to speech intelligibility from spatial cues. The feasibility of a method for enhancing the binaural cues available to BCI users is investigated. This involved extending interaural differences of levels, which typically are restricted to high frequencies, into the low-frequency region.
  
  
  METHODS
  Speech intelligibility was measured in BCI users listening over headphones and with direct stimulation, with a target talker presented to one side of the head in the presence of a masker talker on the other side. Spatial separation was achieved by applying either naturally occurring binaural cues or enhanced cues.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this listening configuration, BCI patients showed greater speech intelligibility with the enhanced binaural cues than with naturally occurring binaural cues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In some situations, it is possible for BCI users to achieve greater speech intelligibility when binaural cues are enhanced by applying interaural differences of levels in the low-frequency region.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003463:Cues; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013017:Sound Localization; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception