Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of cognition and noise reduction (NR) technology in cochlear implants (CIs) on speech perception and listening effort.
Methods: Thirteen adults fitted with unilateral CIs (Nucleus® 6, CP900) participated in this study. Participants performed: (I) cognitive tests of working memory and processing speed, (II) speech perception in noise tests, and (III) an auditory–visual dual-task paradigm to quantify listening effort, as a part of the three-phase experimental study. Both the participant and the tester, performing the outcome measures, were blinded to the NR settings (ON/OFF) of the CI for phases II and III.
Results: Speech intelligibility significantly improved with the NR activated, but was independent of individual differences in cognitive abilities. Listening effort did not significantly change with NR setting; however, there was a trend for participants with good working memory to have better speech perception scores with NR activated during the effortful listening task (dual-task paradigm).
Conclusion: Future studies are warranted to explore the interaction between cognition and CI NR algorithms during an effortful listening task.
Disclaimer statements
Contributors None.
Conflicts of interest The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Ethics approval None.
ORCID
Suzanne Carolyn Purdy http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9978-8173
Ellen Giles http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4671-313X
Catherine Louise Anne Morgan http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8350-5001
Abin Kuruvilla-Mathew http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9025-2900