Head Movements Allow Listeners Bilaterally Implanted With Cochlear Implants to Resolve Front-Back Confusions.
M Torben Pastore, Sarah J Natale, William A Yost and 1 others
PMID 29664750WHAT IT FOUND
Bilaterally implanted cochlear implant users improved front-back localization when allowed to turn their heads.
In the lab, head movement raised correct responses from 49.4% to 81.7% and reduced front-back reversals from 41.9% to 6.7%.
Key findings
01With the head still, CI users were correct 49.4% of the time, and 41.9% of responses were front-back confusions.
02When CI users were allowed to rotate their heads, correct responses were 81.7% and front-back reversals were 6.7%.
03When CI users turned off one implant, head movement did not produce a significant localization change: correct responses were 20.8% without head movement and 22.2% with head movement.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only seven CI users and seven normal hearing listeners were tested, so the study cannot show how many CI users would benefit or how much individual differences matter. Testing used a quiet room, simple noise bursts, and loudspeakers spaced 60 degrees apart, not speech, background noise, reverberation, or continuous real-world sound sources. All CI users had two MED-EL implants and used their usual settings, so results may not apply to other implant brands, unilateral users, or different microphone placements. The level of the stimulus was not varied, which may have made front-back judgments easier than in everyday listening. When one implant was turned off, localization was so poor that front-back errors could not be separated from other localization errors.
Declared interests
The supplied text includes publication tags for NIH and non-U.S. government research support. It does not include an author conflict-of-interest statement or say that a sponsor designed or wrote the study.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that head movement will improve everyday speech understanding or safety for CI users. The study tested only front-back localization of noise bursts in a quiet lab with seven CI users.