The Impact of Synchronized Cochlear Implant Sampling and Stimulation on Free-Field Spatial Hearing Outcomes: Comparing the ciPDA Research Processor to Clinical Processors.
Stephen R Dennison, Heath G Jones, Alan Kan and 1 others
PMID 34882619WHAT IT FOUND
Synchronized bilateral cochlear implant hardware did not improve sound localization or speech understanding in noise compared to standard unsynchronized processors.
Listeners needed higher signal-to-noise ratios to hear speech with the synchronized device, likely due to unfamiliarity and system noise.
Key findings
01There was no significant difference in sound localization error between synchronized and unsynchronized hardware.
02Speech reception thresholds were significantly worse (higher) with the synchronized hardware compared to unsynchronized clinical processors.
03There was no significant group difference in spatial release from masking between the synchronization conditions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Participants had very little time to acclimatize to the research processor, which may have masked potential benefits. The research processor lacked automatic gain control, which is present in clinical devices and may have provided an unfair advantage to the unsynchronized condition. The research processor had audible system noise due to a hardware fault. The study used the same sound coding strategy (ACE) for both conditions, which may not optimally utilize synchronized timing for binaural cues.
Declared interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests. The study was supported by NIH grants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that synchronized hardware is ineffective for all bilateral cochlear implant users. The negative results may be due to the lack of acclimatization and the absence of automatic gain control in the research device, rather than synchronization itself failing to provide benefits.