Assessment of Binaural Benefits in Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Listeners.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to (a) investigate which speech material is most appropriate as stimulus in head shadow effect (HSE) and binaural squelch (SQ) tests, (b) obtain normative values of both tests using the material decided to be optimal, and (c) explore the results in bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users.

Method: Study participants consisted of 30 normal-hearing (NH) persons and 34 bilateral CI users. This study consisted of three phases.

Effect of a CI Programming Fitting Tool with Artificial Intelligence in Experienced Cochlear Implant Patients.

Objective: Cochlear implants (CIs) are the treatment of choice for patients with severe to profound hearing loss. The hearing results, however, considerably vary across patients. This may partly be due to variability in the CI fitting.

Prospective Comparison Between Manual and Computer-Assisted (FOX) Cochlear Implant Fitting in Newly Implanted Patients.

Objective: A prospective, longitudinal, randomized controlled trial with an original crossover design for 1 year was conducted to compare manual fitting to artificial intelligence-based fitting in newly implanted patients.

Design: Twenty-four patients who received their first cochlear implant (CI) were randomly assigned to the manual or Fitting to Outcome eXpert (FOX) arm; they followed the corresponding fitting procedures for 1 year. After 1 year, each patient was switched to another arm.

Speech Audiometrical Results Before and After Reimplantation of Cochlear Implants.

Objectives: This study aimed to compare the audiological outcomes of cochlear reimplantation with those of the first cochlear implant (CI).

Design: A retrospective analysis was performed on the data of all CI recipients who received the first CI at the age of 8 years or above and who were subsequently reimplanted on the same side. All participants who received their first implant after January 1, 2000, and who were reimplanted before January 1, 2021, were included.

Computational Audiology: New Approaches to Advance Hearing Health Care in the Digital Age.

The global digital transformation enables computational audiology for advanced clinical applications that can reduce the global burden of hearing loss. In this article, we describe emerging hearing-related artificial intelligence applications and argue for their potential to improve access, precision, and efficiency of hearing health care services. Also, we raise awareness of risks that must be addressed to enable a safe digital transformation in audiology.

Variability of fitting parameters across cochlear implant centres.

Objective: As a follow-up to the studies by Vaerenberg et al. (Sci World J 501738:1-12, 2014) and Browning et al. (Cochlear Implant Int 21(3):1-13, 2020), who used questionnaires, we determined whether there are between-centre variations in the fitting of cochlear implants by analysing the methodology, fitting parameters and hearing results of patients from four centres with real data.

A New Pathogenic Variant in the TRIOBP Associated with Profound Deafness Is Remediable with Cochlear Implantation.

Background And Objectives: A rare type of nonsyndromic autosomal recessive hereditary hearing loss is caused by pathogenic mutations in the TRIOBP gene mostly involving exons 6 and 7. These mutations cause hearing loss originating from dysfunction of sensory inner ear hair cells. Of all the affected siblings, 2 brothers and 1 sister, part of an Afghan family, were referred to our clinic for diagnostic workup and candidacy selection for cochlear implantation (CI).

Speech Perception Changes in the Acoustically Aided, Nonimplanted Ear after Cochlear Implantation: A Multicenter Study.

In recent years there has been an increasing percentage of cochlear implant (CI) users who have usable residual hearing in the contralateral, nonimplanted ear, typically aided by acoustic amplification. This raises the issue of the extent to which the signal presented through the cochlear implant may influence how listeners process information in the acoustically stimulated ear. This multicenter retrospective study examined pre- to postoperative changes in speech perception in the nonimplanted ear, the implanted ear, and both together.

Cochlear implant telemedicine: Remote fitting based on psychoacoustic self-tests and artificial intelligence.

This study aims to assess the feasibility of autonomous cochlear implant (CI) fitting by adult CI recipients based on psychoacoustic self-testing and artificial intelligence (AI). A feasibility study was performed on six adult CI recipients implanted with a Nucleus device. Two weeks after processor activation in the clinic, a 'self-fitting' session was organized in a supervised simulated home environment.

Listening Difficulties of Children With Cochlear Implants in Mainstream Secondary Education.

Objectives: Previous research has shown that children with cochlear implants (CIs) encounter more communication difficulties than their normal-hearing (NH) peers in kindergarten and elementary schools. Yet, little is known about the potential listening difficulties that children with CIs may experience during secondary education. The aim of this study was to investigate the listening difficulties of children with a CI in mainstream secondary education and to compare these results to the difficulties of their NH peers and the difficulties observed by their teachers.

From manual to artificial intelligence fitting: Two cochlear implant case studies.

To assess whether CI programming by means of a software application using artificial intelligence (AI), FOX®, may improve cochlear implant (CI) performance. Two adult CI recipients who had mixed auditory results with their manual fitting were selected for an AI-assisted fitting. Even after 17 months CI experience and 19 manual fitting sessions, the first subject hadn't developed open set word recognition.

Empowering Senior Cochlear Implant Users at Home via a Tablet Computer Application.

Purpose: The introduction of connectivity technologies in hearing implants allows new ways to support cochlear implant (CI) users remotely. Some functionalities and services that are traditionally only available in an in-clinic care model can now also be accessed at home. This study explores the feasibility of a prototype of a tablet computer application (MyHearingApp [MHA]) in a group of senior experienced CI users at home, evaluating usability and user motivation.

LiCoS: A New Linguistically Controlled Sentences Test to Assess Functional Hearing Performance.

Purpose: To overcome the potential tension between clinical and ecological validity in speech audiometric assessment by creating a new set of sentence materials with high linguistic validity for the Dutch-speaking area.

Methods: A linguistic "fingerprint" of modern spoken Dutch and Flemish served to generate a set of sentences recorded from 1 male and 1 female talker. The sentences were presented to 30 normal-hearing listeners in stationary speech noise at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of -5 dB sound pressure level (SPL).

Speech understanding in noise in elderly adults: the effect of inhibitory control and syntactic complexity.

Background: Previous research has suggested that speech perception in elderly adults is influenced not only by age-related hearing loss or presbycusis but also by declines in cognitive abilities, by background noise and by the syntactic complexity of the message.

Aims: To gain further insight into the influence of these cognitive as well as acoustic and linguistic factors on speech perception in elderly adults by investigating inhibitory control as a listener characteristic and background noise type and syntactic complexity as input characteristics.

Methods & Procedures: Phoneme identification was measured in different noise conditions and in different linguistic contexts (single words, sentences with varying syntactic complexity).

The use of cochlear's SCAN and wireless microphones to improve speech understanding in noise with the Nucleus6® CP900 processor.

Objectives: The newest Nucleus CI processor, the CP900, has two new options to improve speech-in-noise perception: (1) use of an adaptive directional microphone (SCAN mode) and (2) wireless connection to MiniMic1 and MiniMic2 wireless remote microphones.

Design: An analysis was made of the absolute and relative benefits of these technologies in a real-world mimicking test situation. Speech perception was tested using an adaptive speech-in-noise test (sentences-in-babble noise).

Computer-assisted CI fitting: Is the learning capacity of the intelligent agent FOX beneficial for speech understanding?

Objective: The software application FOX ('Fitting to Outcome eXpert') is an intelligent agent to assist in the programing of cochlear implant (CI) processors. The current version utilizes a mixture of deterministic and probabilistic logic which is able to improve over time through a learning effect. This study aimed at assessing whether this learning capacity yields measurable improvements in speech understanding.

Linguistic Factors Influencing Speech Audiometric Assessment.

In speech audiometric testing, hearing performance is typically measured by calculating the number of correct repetitions of a speech stimulus. We investigate to what extent the repetition accuracy of Dutch speech stimuli presented against a background noise is influenced by nonauditory processes. We show that variation in verbal repetition accuracy is partially explained by morpholexical and syntactic features of the target language.

Expert opinion: Time to ban formal CI selection criteria?

This contribution addresses cochlear implantation (CI) selection criteria as a discussion topic. It expresses a personal viewpoint that challenges the usefulness and necessity of formal selection criteria. Scientifically, it is argued that CI selection must be highly individual, whereas the current criteria are general, not valid, not based on a wide consensus, and not up-to-date.

Spoken Word Recognition Errors in Speech Audiometry: A Measure of Hearing Performance?

This report provides a detailed analysis of incorrect responses from an open-set spoken word-repetition task which is part of a Dutch speech audiometric test battery. Single-consonant confusions were analyzed from 230 normal hearing participants in terms of the probability of choice of a particular response on the basis of acoustic-phonetic, lexical, and frequency variables. The results indicate that consonant confusions are better predicted by lexical knowledge than by acoustic properties of the stimulus word.

Speech understanding in noise with the Roger Pen, Naida CI Q70 processor, and integrated Roger 17 receiver in a multi-talker network.

Roger is a digital adaptive multi-channel remote microphone technology that wirelessly transmits a speaker's voice directly to a hearing instrument or cochlear implant sound processor. Frequency hopping between channels, in combination with repeated broadcast, avoids interference issues that have limited earlier generation FM systems. This study evaluated the benefit of the Roger Pen transmitter microphone in a multiple talker network (MTN) for cochlear implant users in a simulated noisy conversation setting.

A Retrospective Multicenter Study Comparing Speech Perception Outcomes for Bilateral Implantation and Bimodal Rehabilitation.

Objectives: To compare speech perception outcomes between bilateral implantation (cochlear implants [CIs]) and bimodal rehabilitation (one CI on one side plus one hearing aid [HA] on the other side) and to explore the clinical factors that may cause asymmetric performances in speech intelligibility between the two ears in case of bilateral implantation.

Design: Retrospective data from 2247 patients implanted since 2003 in 15 international centers were collected. Intelligibility scores, measured in quiet and in noise, were converted into percentile ranks to remove differences between centers.

Assessment of 'Fitting to Outcomes Expert' FOX™ with new cochlear implant users in a multi-centre study.

Objective: To compare the fitting time requirements and the efficiency in achieving improvements in speech perception during the first 6 months after initial stimulation of computer-assisted fitting with the Fitting to Outcome eXpert' (FOX) and a standard clinical fitting procedure.

Method: Twenty-seven post-lingually deafened adults, newly implanted recipients of the Advanced Bionics HiRes 90K™ cochlear implant from Germany, the UK, and France took part in a controlled, randomized, clinical study. Speech perception was measured for all participants and fitting times were compared across groups programmed using FOX and conventional programming methods.

Evaluation of the 'Fitting to Outcomes eXpert' (FOX®) with established cochlear implant users.

Objectives: To evaluate the possible impact of 'Fitting to Outcomes eXpert (FOX(®))' on cochlear implant (CI) fitting in a clinic with extensive experience of fitting a range of CI systems, as a way to assess whether a software tool such as FOX is able to complement standard clinical procedures.

Methods: Ten adult post-lingually deafened and unilateral long-term users of the Advanced Bionics(TM) CI system (Clarion CII or HiRes 90K(TM)) underwent speech perception assessment with their current clinical program. One cycle 'iteration' of FOX optimization was performed and the program adjusted accordingly.