Short-Term Effect of Auditory Feedback on Fundamental Frequency after Cochlear Implantation

Abstract

The present study evaluates the short-term effect of cochlear implantation on the fundamental frequency (F0) of 13 deaf patients. All patients were provided with the Combi 40+ cochlear implant. Voice recording was made pre- and 3 months post-implantation. The F0 was analysed using X-Tools software. The results showed that 38 per cent of our subjects had a statistically significant decrease of their mean F0 (p=0.001) at 3 months following implantation. It was also observed that the patients tended to have a lower F0 postoperatively approaching the normal range of F0. A large variability in F0 was noticed among the deaf subjects but no correlation with the duration of deafness was seen. There was also no correlation between speech recognition and speech production.

Key Words:

• Combi 40+
• Auditory feedback
• Voice quality