Listening Effort Measured in Adults with Normal Hearing and Cochlear Implants

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Neuroscience
• Speech and Hearing Science

Background:

• Listening effort is a key metric for assessing hearing impairment, particularly with cochlear implants (CIs).
• Bilateral CIs generally show improved listening effort over unilateral CIs.
• Research on listening effort in hybrid CI users is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare listening effort in normal-hearing individuals and three groups of CI users: unilateral, bilateral, and hybrid.
• To investigate the influence of listener traits (age, age at onset, CI duration, working memory) on listening effort.

Main Methods:

• A dual-task paradigm was employed, combining speech identification in noise with a Stroop test to measure reaction time.
• Participants completed tasks across various signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs).
• Subjective listening effort was assessed using questionnaires, alongside tests of working memory capacity.

Main Results:

• Normal-hearing individuals demonstrated greater improvement in listening effort across SNRs compared to all CI groups.
• No significant differences in listening effort were observed among the unilateral, bilateral, and hybrid CI groups.
• Age was significantly correlated with listening effort across all participants; other listener traits showed no significant correlation.

Conclusions:

• Normal-hearing listeners exhibit less listening effort than cochlear implant users.
• Listening effort does not significantly differ between unilateral, bilateral, and hybrid CI users.
• Listener age is a significant factor in listening effort for CI users, while duration of CI use and age at onset of hearing loss are not.