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Acoustic Hearing Can Interfere With Single-Sided Deafness Cochlear-Implant Speech Perception
Joshua G W Bernstein1, Olga A Stakhovskaya2, Kenneth Kragh Jensen1
1National Military Audiology and Speech Pathology Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Ear and Hearing
|October 5, 2019
Summary
For individuals with single-sided deafness (SSD) using cochlear implants (CIs), the non-implanted ear can interfere with hearing in noisy environments, especially for older users. This contralateral speech interference can reduce the benefits of a cochlear implant (CI).
Area of Science:
- Audiology and Hearing Science
- Neuroscience of Hearing
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Cochlear implants (CIs) offer spatial hearing benefits for single-sided deafness (SSD) by leveraging head-shadow and binaural advantages.
- However, some bilateral CI users experience contralateral speech interference due to asymmetries in hearing.
- This study investigates potential interference from the acoustic ear in SSD-CI listeners.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the hypothesis that the acoustic ear interferes with, rather than aids, CI speech understanding in SSD-CI listeners within a multiple-talker scenario.
- To quantify the magnitude of this interference and identify listener-specific factors influencing it.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Measured speech understanding in 13 SSD-CI listeners with target speech to the CI ear, competing speech/noise to CI ear, and silence or competing speech/noise to the acoustic ear.
- Experiment 2: Tested a subset of listeners in a reverse configuration (target/competing speech to acoustic ear; silence/competing speech to CI ear).
- Data analyzed using logistic regression; correlation analysis explored relationships between interference and listener factors (age, CI experience, hearing thresholds).
Main Results:
- In Experiment 1, adding competing speech to the acoustic ear significantly reduced CI speech understanding (at target-to-masker ratios ≥4 dB), but noise did not.
- A large intersubject variability in interference was observed, significantly correlated with listener age.
- Experiment 2 showed a binaural benefit in the reverse configuration, contrasting with the interference observed in Experiment 1.
Conclusions:
- Most SSD-CI listeners experienced contralateral speech interference when the acoustic ear received competing speech, with older individuals being more susceptible.
- This interference can diminish the benefits provided by cochlear implants (CIs) in specific multi-talker listening situations.
- Further research under free-field conditions is warranted to fully understand these effects.
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