Speech understanding with the CIS and the n-of-m strategy in the MED-EL COMBI 40+ system

Speech tests have been performed on 6 subjects for comparing the standard 12-channel continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) strategy (CIS12), the 7-channel CIS strategy (CIS7) and the 7-of-12 strategy in the MED-EL COMBI 40+ system. An ABAB experimental design was used whereby each strategy was reversed and replicated. Speech tests were performed in quiet (vowels, consonants, monosyllables, sentences) and noise (sentences). Results showed that for vowels, CIS12 is significantly superior to CIS7, for consonants and sentences CIS12, CIS7 and 7-of-12 performed equally well, and that for monosyllables 7-of-12 is significantly superior to both CIS12 and CIS7. In addition, 7-of-12 is superior to CIS7 by almost the same amount as CIS12, but in this case the difference is not significant. Further, all strategies have been found to be equally robust in noise with respect to sentence understanding. The differences between CIS12 and 7-of-12 on the one hand and CIS7 on the other hand may be attributed to decreased spectral resolution of the latter. The fact that - in contrast to what has been reported for the SPEAK strategy - 7-of-12 is equally robust in noise as the CIS strategies is explained by the use of higher stimulation rates, wider frequency bands and a higher percentage of channels stimulated in each cycle.