Nonword Repetition Assessing Auditory and Cognitive Abilities in Adult Cochlear Implant Users

Area of Science:

• Auditory Neuroscience
• Speech and Hearing Science

Background:

• Phonological processing is crucial for spoken language comprehension, integrating auditory, cognitive, and linguistic skills.
• Cochlear implants (CIs) restore hearing but show variable speech recognition outcomes in adults with sensorineural hearing loss.
• Phonological processing deficits may worsen with age, potentially impacting CI users more significantly.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine phonological processing in adult CI users compared to normal-hearing (NH) peers using a nonword repetition task (NWRT).
• To investigate age-related changes in phonological processing among CI users.
• To identify auditory, cognitive, and linguistic predictors of NWRT performance variability in CI users.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-eight adult CI users and 44 NH adults (>50 years) completed an audiovisual NWRT.
• Participants underwent auditory (spectrotemporal resolution), cognitive (working memory, nonverbal reasoning), and linguistic (reading efficiency, vocabulary) assessments.

Main Results:

• CI users performed significantly worse on the NWRT than NH peers.
• CI users showed greater age-related declines in NWRT performance.
• Spectrotemporal resolution was the strongest predictor of NWRT performance in CI users, followed by reading efficiency, vocabulary, and nonverbal reasoning.

Conclusions:

• Adult CI users face phonological processing challenges, exacerbated by age.
• NWRT performance in CI users is influenced by a combination of auditory, cognitive, and linguistic factors.
• Spectrotemporal resolution is a key factor underlying phonological processing abilities in adult CI users.