Recognizing spoken words in semantically-anomalous sentences: Effects of executive control in early-implanted deaf children with cochlear implants

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate differences in speech, language, and neurocognitive functioning in normal hearing (NH) children and deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs) using anomalous sentences. Anomalous sentences block the use of downstream predictive coding during speech recognition, allowing for investigation of rapid phonological coding and executive functioning.

Methods: Extreme groups were extracted from samples of children with CIs and NH peers (ages 9 to 17) based on the 7 highest and 7 lowest scores on the Harvard-Anomalous sentence test (Harvard-A). The four groups were compared on measures of speech, language, and neurocognitive functioning.

Results: The 7 highest-scoring CI users and the 7 lowest-scoring NH peers did not differ in Harvard-A scores but did differ significantly on measures of neurocognitive functioning. Compared to low-performing NH peers, highperforming children with CIs had significantly lower nonword repetition scores but higher nonverbal IQ scores, greater verbal WM capacity, and excellent EF skills related to inhibition, shifting attention/mental flexibility and working memory updating.

Discussion: High performing deaf children with CIs are able to compensate for their sensory deficits and weaknesses in automatic phonological coding of speech by engaging in a slow effortful mode of information processing involving inhibition, working memory and executive functioning.

Keywords:

• Deafness
• Cochlear Implants
• Speech Recognition
• Language
• Executive Functioning
• Working Memory

Disclosure statement

David Pisoni reports no conflict of interest. William Kronenberger is a paid consultant to Takeda/Shire Pharmaceuticals, Homology Medicines, and the Indiana Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center (none are relevant to the current article).

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this article was supported by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Research Grant R01 DC-015257.

Notes on contributors

David B. Pisoni

David B. Pisoni is currently Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Chancellor’s Professor of Cognitive Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, and an Adjunct Professorin the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, USA. He has made significant contributions in basic, applied, and clinical research in areas of speech perception, production, synthesis, and spoken language processing. He has also carried out seminal research on cognition and cochlear implants in deaf children and adults.

William G. Kronenberger

William G. Kronenberger, Ph.D., is Professor, Director of the Section of Psychology, and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine. He serves as Chief of the Pediatric Psychology Testing Clinic and Co-Chief of the ADHD Clinic at Riley Hospital for Children. Dr. Kronenberger has been an investigator on multiple projects addressing neurocognitive, psychosocial, and spoken language development in children with hearing loss and cochlear implants or hearing aids. He is the author of several tests including the Learning, Executive, and Attention Functioning scale (LEAF) and the Conduct-Hyperactive-Attention Problems-Oppositional-Symptoms scale (CHAOS).