CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Laryngorhinootologie 2021; 100(S 02): S198-S199
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1728364
Abstracts
Otology / Neurotology / Audiology

Influence of contralateral hearing of unilaterally aided CI recipients on speech understanding in a simulated restaurant environment: Do directional microphone technologies help?

J Galindo Guerreros
1   Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Sektion Cochlear Implant, Freiburg
,
G Grimm
2   Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Auditorische Signalverarbeitung und Exzellenzcluster Hearing4all, Oldenburg
,
V Hohmann
2   Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Auditorische Signalverarbeitung und Exzellenzcluster Hearing4all, Oldenburg
,
T Wesarg
1   Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Sektion Cochlear Implant, Freiburg
,
A Aschendorff
1   Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Sektion Cochlear Implant, Freiburg
› Author Affiliations
 

Introduction Cochlear implant (CI) recipients have difficulties and large listening effort (LE) in speech understanding in noisy environments. Directional microphone technologies (DMTs) in CI sound processors improve speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in noise and consequently reduce LE. Our ongoing study aims to assess the impact of the unaided hearing thresholds in the contralateral ear of unilateral CI recipients on the benefit of DMTs for speech understanding. The DMTs under investigation are Standard, Zoom, Beam and ForwardFocus of the Cochlear Nucleus 7 CI sound processor.

Methods To date, 19 unilateral CI recipients, unaided in the contralateral ear, have been included in the study. Of the 19, 13 show single-sided deafness (SSD) and 6 have a profound hearing loss contralaterally (PHL). SRTs and LE were determined with the OLSA and ACALES in a simulated restaurant environment, respectively. During the tests, CI recipients used the mentioned DMTs. Within the restaurant environment, a face-to-face conversation between the study subject and a frontal speaker 1 m apart and 20 interfering speakers distributed in the restaurant (S0N360) is simulated. The environment is presented via 72 loudspeakers arranged in a full circle in an anechoic room.

Results Compared to the most unsuitable DMT (standard), the SSD group improved SRT by 2.0 dB SNR and reduced LE at moderate SNRs with the most suitable DMT (ForwardFocus). The PHL group also reduced LE at moderate SNRs and improved SRT by 7.0 dB SNR.

Conclusions In the restaurant environment, the ForwardFocus is most suitable for speech intelligibility and listening effort in both unilateral CI subject groups. The amount of benefit between the subject groups is determined by the unaided contralateral hearing thresholds.

Poster-PDF A-1347.pdf

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Publication History

Article published online:
13 May 2021

© 2021. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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