Speech perception in noise in adolescents with cochlear implant

The primary objective was to investigate the effect of age at cochlear implant (CI) activation on listening skills in a noisy environment in adolescents who grew up with a CI. The secondary objective was to investigate the role of variables such as stimulation mode and neurocognitive abilities in noise perception in children with a CI.

The sample consisted of 64 subjects ranged in age from 10 to 16 years. The participants were diagnosed between one and 18 months of age and underwent cochlear implant activation between eight and 42 months of age. Thirty subjects used a unilateral stimulation mode and 5 subjects a bimodal stimulation mode, 8 with simultaneous bilateral implantation and 21 with sequential bilateral implantation. The Italian Matrix Sentence Test (It-Matrix) was employed to assess listening in noise. Neuropsychological functions were examined with the NEPSY-II (NEuroPSYchology II edition) test battery.

Speech perception is high correlated with cochlear implant (CI) age in months attaining the level of -0.69. The results from the ANOVA analysis demonstrated a significant relationship between the speech perception in noise and the stimulation mode. Posthocanalysis showed a significant difference between the group with sequential bilateral CI and the group with unilateral CI (effect size 0.2 ). The relationship between listening in noise and neuropsychological variables revealed a significant relationshipwith auditory attention skill, the fast naming test and phonological processing test.

The ability to recognize speech in noise is predicted by age at CI activation and neuropsychological variables.