Spectral-Temporal Modulated Ripple Discrimination by Children With Cochlear Implants.
David M Landsberger, Monica Padilla, Amy S Martinez and 1 others
PMID 28682810WHAT IT FOUND
Children with cochlear implants showed poorer spectral resolution than adults with implants, and their ability did not improve with age.
Unlike adults, children performed better using both implants together than with their best ear alone. This suggests early implantation may help the brain fuse signals from two ears.
Key findings
01Children with cochlear implants had significantly lower spectral resolution scores (average 3.06 ripples per octave) compared to adults with cochlear implants (average 4.30 ripples per octave).
02Spectral resolution in children with implants did not correlate with age, age at implantation, or duration of implant use, whereas hearing children showed a positive correlation between age and performance.
03Children with implants performed significantly better when listening with both ears together than with their better ear alone, an advantage not seen in adults.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot track how individual children's abilities change over time. Most children used Cochlear devices while most adults used Advanced Bionics devices, which may have influenced spectral resolution differences due to different processing strategies. The clinical significance of the specific ripple density differences is unclear, as the study did not directly link these scores to speech recognition outcomes in this population. Sample sizes were relatively small, particularly for the adult group.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (N.I.H., Extramural). No specific commercial conflicts of interest were reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that poorer spectral resolution in children with implants directly translates to worse speech recognition in daily life. The study notes that the clinical ramifications are unclear, and children may develop compensatory strategies using other acoustic cues.