Development of electrophysiological and behavioural measures of electrode discrimination in adult cochlear implant users

Rajeev Mathew*, Deborah Vickers, Patrick Boyle, Azhar Shaida, David Selvadurai, Dan Jiang, Jaime Undurraga

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    14 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The plasticity of the auditory system enables it to adjust to electrical stimulation from cochlear implants (CI). Whilst speech perception may develop for many years after implant activation, very little is known about the changes in auditory processing that underpin these improvements. Such an understanding could help guide interventions that improve hearing performance. In this longitudinal study, we examine how electrode discrimination ability changes over time in newly implanted adult CI users. Electrode discrimination was measured with a behavioural task as well as the spatial auditory change complex (ACC), which is a cortical response to a change in place of stimulation. We show that there was significant improvement in electrode discrimination ability over time, though in certain individuals the process of accommodation was slower and more limited. We found a strong relationship between objective and behavioural measures of electrode discrimination using pass-fail rules. In several cases, the development of the spatial ACC preceded accurate behavioural discrimination. These data provide evidence for plasticity of auditory processing in adult CI users. Behavioural electrode discrimination score but not spatial ACC amplitude was found to be a significant predictor of speech perception. We suggest that it would be beneficial to measure electrode discrimination in CI users and that interventions that exploit the plastic capacity of the auditory system to improve basic auditory processing, could be used to optimize performance in CI users.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)74-87
    Number of pages14
    JournalHearing Research
    Volume367
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Sept 2018

    Keywords

    • cochlear implant
    • auditory plasticity
    • electrode discrimination
    • auditory change complex
    • ACC
    • objective measures

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