Longitudinal effect of deactivating stimulation sites based on low-rate thresholds on speech recognition in cochlear implant users.
Ning Zhou
PMID 31012771WHAT IT FOUND
Deactivating cochlear implant electrodes with poor low-rate thresholds improved speech recognition in noise for all subjects.
Benefits peaked after two months of acclimatization and decreased when switching back to the clinical map, suggesting users need time to adapt to the new frequency allocation.
Key findings
01Deactivating electrodes based on low-rate thresholds significantly improved speech recognition in noise, with the benefit being greatest after two months of acclimatization.
02Improvement in quiet speech recognition was not immediate; it required acclimatization and was significantly correlated with the variability of low-rate thresholds across the electrode array.
03The benefit of deactivation did not provide a consistent release of masking from fluctuating noises compared to steady-state noises.
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 (8 subjects) limits generalizability. The number of electrodes deactivated (five) was based on previous studies and may not be optimal for every individual. The tester was not blinded to the map condition, introducing potential bias. Individual analysis used confidence intervals derived from HINT sentences, which may have overestimated significance for CUNY sentences.
Declared interests
Funding from N.I.H. (Extramural). No other conflicts of interest declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that deactivating electrodes will immediately improve speech recognition in quiet. The study found no acute benefit in quiet; improvement only occurred after two months of acclimatization to the new frequency allocation.