Factors affecting talker discrimination ability in adult cochlear implant users.
Michael M Li, Aaron C Moberly, Terrin N Tamati
PMID 35988314WHAT IT FOUND
High-performing cochlear implant users struggled to tell apart talkers of the same gender but managed mixed-gender pairs.
Older age and weaker inhibitory control predicted poorer discrimination in mixed-gender tasks. Same-gender discrimination ability linked to better sentence recognition.
Key findings
01Participants performed near chance when discriminating talkers of the same gender but showed relatively good discrimination for mixed-gender pairs.
02Older age was significantly associated with poorer global and mixed-gender talker discrimination.
03Stronger inhibitory control was significantly associated with better global and mixed-gender talker discrimination.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Small sample size of 14 participants limits generalisability. The study only included high-performing CI users, so results may not apply to those with poorer speech recognition. The group included both bilateral and unilateral CI users, but the sample was too small to analyse the effect of device configuration. The Spectral-Temporally Modulated Ripple Test (SMRT) may not accurately reflect spectro-temporal processing in high-performing CI users due to aliasing issues.
Declared interests
One author received grant funding from Cochlear Americas for an unrelated study and serves as a paid consultant for Cochlear Americas and Advanced Bionics. The same author is CMO and on the Board of Directors for Otologic Technologies.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that good mixed-gender discrimination indicates overall strong talker processing. Same-gender discrimination remained near chance for most participants, and this specific deficit was the one linked to poor sentence recognition in multi-talker conditions.