Binaural Pitch Fusion in Children With Normal Hearing, Hearing Aids, and Cochlear Implants.

The study analysed 57 children, and additional children were excluded for not understanding instructions, not completing appointments, or withdrawing, so some group findings rest on small numbers. The children were not assigned to hearing devices. They already used their current combination for at least one year, so differences between groups may reflect hearing loss severity, age at implantation, device history, or other factors rather than the device combination itself. The adult comparison came from previously published data, not a newly recruited adult sample, and adult hearing loss onset varied from before language development to adulthood. The study measured lab pitch fusion and pitch matching, not speech perception in noise or language outcomes in children. Links to speech difficulties come from adult studies and author interpretation. In the bilateral cochlear implant group, the variables associated with fusion range were highly related to each other, so the study cannot tell which factor influenced fusion. Some children could not complete the pitch matching task, especially in the bilateral cochlear implant group, and those failures were excluded from pitch match range group summaries. Fusion and pitch match ranges for bilateral cochlear implant users were converted from electrodes to millimetres and approximated to octaves because electrode spacing differed by device, which may affect comparisons with acoustic groups.

No conflicts of interest were reported. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural research funding.

Do not conclude that bilateral hearing aids cause broad fusion or that bimodal cochlear implants improve speech perception. The children were not assigned to devices, the study measured pitch fusion in the laboratory, and it did not test speech outcomes in children.