The Relationship Between Spectral Modulation Detection and Speech Recognition: Adult Versus Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients.

The pediatric group was much smaller than the adult groups. Many children performed at or near chance on the spectral modulation task, so the task may not have captured their abilities. The study was observational and correlated test scores; it did not show that spectral modulation detection causes better speech recognition. Data were pooled from multiple prior studies, so testing conditions and participant histories may not have been identical. All prelingually deafened adults had worn hearing aids before implantation and had used listening and spoken language, which may not represent all prelingually deafened adults. Children with additional disabilities that could affect task performance were excluded, so results may not apply to all pediatric CI recipients. Testing was done in one implanted ear only, with other ears occluded, so it may not reflect everyday listening with bilateral implants or hearing aids. The spectral modulation task was scored as one collapsed percent-correct value, not separately for each modulation rate and depth. Pediatric speech tests were developmentally appropriate, and ceiling effects may have affected sentence recognition in quiet.

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Do not conclude that children with cochlear implants have good spectral modulation detection because they score well on speech tests. In this study, many children performed at or near chance on the spectral modulation test, and their speech scores did not correlate with it.