Spectral loudness summation for electrical stimulation in cochlear implant users

This study investigates the effect of spectral loudness summation (SLS) in the electrical domain as perceived by cochlear implant (CI) users. Analogous to SLS in the acoustical domain, SLS was defined as the effect of electrode separation at a fixed overall stimulation rate.

Categorical loudness scaling (CLS) was conducted at three overall stimulation rates using single-electrode stimuli and multi-electrode stimuli presented interleaved on two or four electrodes. The specific loudness of the pulses in the multi-electrode stimuli were equalized based on single-electrode measurements at the same overall stimulation rate. At a fixed overall stimulation rate and a fixed loudness perception, SLS was calculated as the difference in mean current between single-electrode and multi-electrode stimuli.

Ten postlingually deafened adult CI users.

The amount of SLS varied between subjects and between the number and location of the stimulated electrodes in the multi-electrode configuration. SLS was significantly higher than 0 for a subset of the subjects.

For a subpopulation of CI users, loudness models should account for nonlinear interactions between electrodes (in the perceptual domain). Similarly, SLS should be accounted for when using CLS outcomes for fitting purposes, at least in a subpopulation of CI users.