Impact of cognition and noise reduction on speech perception in adults with unilateral cochlear implants

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.

Keywords:

• Cochlear implant
• Speech perception
• Cognition
• Noise reduction
• Dual task
• Listening effort
• Working memory

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

Additional information

Funding

This study was sponsored by Cochlear Limited [grant number 3708302] who funded a research assistantship for one of the authors (RT).