Cochlear-Implant Simulated Signal Degradation Exacerbates Listening Effort in Older Listeners.
Jordan C Abramowitz, Matthew J Goupell, Kristina DeRoy Milvae
PMID 37953469WHAT IT FOUND
Older normal-hearing adults showed greater pupil dilation, a sign of more listening effort, with 8-channel vocoded speech simulating cochlear implants than younger listeners did, while sentence recognition stayed above 90% correct.
Key findings
01Relative to the younger unprocessed reference condition, older listeners had larger pupil dilation in the 8- and 32-channel vocoded conditions, and a sharper pupil peak in the 8-channel condition.
02Sentence recognition was near ceiling for both groups, averaging over 90% correct across conditions.
03Working memory and processing speed scores differed by age but did not predict pupil dilation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study included 15 younger and 15 older normal-hearing listeners, so it is a small laboratory comparison. It tested normal-hearing listeners with vocoded speech, not actual cochlear implant users or real implant programs. Older listeners still had significantly higher thresholds from 2000 to 8000 Hz, so peripheral hearing differences were not completely eliminated. Sentence recognition was near ceiling, which may have made it harder to see effects of cognitive abilities or more demanding listening conditions. Pupil reactivity decreases with age, so pupil size was scaled to each listener's dynamic range rather than compared in raw units. The groups were not matched on education or other demographic factors.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest statement. The publication types list research support from NIH extramural funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that older cochlear implant users will have more listening effort than younger users. This study tested normal-hearing listeners with vocoded speech, not actual cochlear implant users, and it did not compare real implant programs.