Phoneme recognition in bimodal hearing. (1st October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shpak, Talma; Most, Tova; Luntz, Michal
• Is Part Of: Acta oto-laryngologica. Volume 140:Number 10(2020)
• Page Start: 854
• Page End: 860
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01
• Subjects: Bimodality -- cochlear implant -- hearing aids -- languages specific fitting -- phonetic features perception; Otolaryngology -- Periodicals; Ear -- Diseases -- Periodicals; Throat -- Diseases -- Periodicals; Otolaryngology -- Electronic Resources; Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases; 617.8
• DOI: 10.1080/00016489.2020.1780311
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0001-6489

Abstract

Abstract: Background: Many unilateral cochlear implant (CI) users have residual hearing in the nonimplanted ear, allowing them to use bimodal hearing. Assessing the hearing aid (HA) contribution is important. Objective: To examine the contribution of a contralateral HA in unilateral CI users with severe-profound hearing loss (HL) in the non-implanted ear to phonetic features perception. Participants and method: Monosyllabic word test in noise was used to assess the phonetic features perception in 29 adult bimodal users with severe-profound HL and only minimal speech recognition using HA alone in the nonimplanted ear. Results: For all consonants and vowel features, participants scored better in the bimodal condition than in the CI-alone condition. Better low frequencies thresholds in the HA ear correlated with better perception of phonetic features in the bimodal condition. Conclusion: CI/HA users with only minimal speech recognition using HA alone in the nonimplanted ear extract low-frequency information provided by the HA ear and combine it with information coming from the implanted ear. Significance: The results of the study provide a reasoning for unilateral CI users to insist on using a contralateral HA as long as contralateral implantation is not performed, and suggest how to monitor the benefit derived from the HA.