Signal detection and speech perception with binaural electrical stimulation in adults and children.

A cochlear implant is a device that, through electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve, enables people with deafness to perceive sounds and understand speech. In a PhD project it was shown that implantation in two ears offers important benefits to children with profound deafness, but that benefits of a second implant are limited. Yet, it was shown that, with specific stimuli, the perception of similarities and differences between the signals at both ears is possible, in orther words that "binaural" sensitivity is present. In the present project factors that promote or hinder this binaural sensitivity are inspected more closely. For this purpose an experimental setup is used with carefully chosen stimuli. Several conditions will be presented to multiple electrodes of the cochlear implant. In this way the gap will be closed between benefits of hearing with two ears for psychophysical tasks on the one hand and the perception of speech in background noise on the other hand.

Keywords:Cochlear implant, Binaural, Signal detection, Speech perception, Unmasking

Disciplines:Otorhinolaryngology, Speech, language and hearing sciences