Development and Beta Testing of Serious Game-Based Auditory Training Application to Enhance Perceptual Learning of Speech in Cochlear Implant Recipients.

Purpose: Computer-based applications became a popular option for auditory training, but their efficacy can be compromised by lack of users' compliance. Serious games are a new emerging field that promotes the use of games for purposes other than entertainment. The purpose of this clinical focus article was to describe the design and development of a new serious game-based auditory training application that aims at enhancing perceptual learning of speech in cochlear implant (CI) recipients.

Psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the meaningful use of speech scale (Arabic MUSS).

Purpose: To examine the construct, discriminative, and predictive validity, and the test-retest reliability of the Arabic Meaningful Use of Speech Scale (MUSS).

Methods: Parents of 102 children with cochlear implantation (CI) with a matching control group of 102 children with normal hearing completed the Arabic-MUSS scale. A random subsample of 30 parents was interviewed after two weeks to examine the test-retest reliability.

Translation, adaptation, and validation of the Arabic version of the meaningful auditory integration scale.

Objectives: The main objectives of this study were to translate and adapt the infant-toddler meaningful integration scale (IT-MAIS) into Arabic and to establish the psychometric properties of the translated scale in children with a cochlear implant.

Methods: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation of this questionnaire were completed in multiple steps and following standard translation protocols. In total, twenty-eight parents of young cochlear implant recipients completed IT-MAIS.

The effect of wearing face mask on speech intelligibility in listeners with sensorineural hearing loss and normal hearing sensitivity.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of wearing a face mask on word recognition in hearing-impaired listeners.

Design: Word recognition scores were obtained in quiet and in different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs 0, +5, and +10 dB) using two listening conditions (with N95 mask and with no-mask).

Study Sample: Participants were forty-six listeners with normal hearing sensitivity and thirty-nine listeners with mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss.

Pediatric Arabic Closed-Set Word-Recognition Test: Development and Evaluation of Psychometric Characteristics.

Background: Speech audiometry materials are widely available in many different languages. However, there are no known standardized materials for the assessment of speech recognition in Arabic-speaking children.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to develop and validate phonetically balanced and psychometrically equivalent monosyllabic word recognition lists for children through a picture identification task.

Bilateral Cochlear Implantations in Temporal Bone Fracture: A Viable Treatment Option.

Objectives/hypothesis: Although it is surgically more challenging, patients with bilateral temporal bone fractures (TBFs) are potential candidates for successful bilateral cochlear implantation (CI). This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of bilateral implantation in patients with sustained bilateral TBFs.

Study Design: Retrospective database study.

Estimating health of the implanted cochlea using psychophysical strength-duration functions and electrode configuration.

It is generally believed that the efficacy of cochlear implants is partly dependent on the condition of the stimulated neural population. Cochlear pathology is likely to affect the manner in which neurons respond to electrical stimulation, potentially resulting in differences in perception of electrical stimuli across cochlear implant recipients and across the electrode array in individual cochlear implant users. Several psychophysical and electrophysiological measures have been shown to predict cochlear health in animals and were used to assess conditions near individual stimulation sites in humans.

Cognitive functioning in Deaf children using Cochlear implants.

Background: Cognitive abilities like language, memory, reasoning, visualization, and perceptual functioning shape human action and are considered critical to the successful interaction with the environment. Alternatively, hearing loss can disrupt a child's ability to communicate, and negatively impact cognitive development. Cochlear implants (CI) restore auditory input thereby supporting communication and may enhance cognitive performance.

Audiologic Outcome of Cochlear Implantation in Children With Cochlear Nerve Deficiency.

Objective/hypothesis: The aim of this study was to investigate cochlear implantation (CI) outcome in children with nerve deficiency.

Study Design: Retrospective chart review.

Methods: A total of seven children with prelingual profound deficiency (hypoplasia or aplasia) were included.

Cochlear Implantation in Children with Otitis Media.

One of the concerns during the cochlear implant candidacy process is the presence of chronic otitis media which could delay the implantation process. The aim of this study was to evaluate the surgical difficulties and the long-term complications in children with otitis media and to examine whether it is necessary to delay the implantation until the infection is resolved. The study used a comparative retrospective design based on chart review of all patients who received their implant(s) from January to December of 2012.

Categories of Auditory Performance and Speech Intelligibility Ratings in Prelingually Deaf Children With Bilateral Implantation.

Purpose The aim of the current study was to review all pediatric cases with congenital deafness who underwent bilateral implantation in our center. Specifically, auditory performance and speech intelligibility ratings were compared across children based on their mode of bilateral stimulation (simultaneous or sequential implantation). Method A retrospective chart review design was used in this study.

The use of an illuminated retractor in cochlear implantation: a comparative retrospective study.

Background: Minimal access surgery has been promoted to reduce the surgical duration and complications of cochlear implant (CI) surgery. A requirement of minimal access surgery is adequate visualization of the surgical cavities.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a new light-integrated surgical retractor reduced CI surgical time.

The development of the University of Jordan word recognition test.

Objective: To develop and validate a digitally recorded speech test battery to assess speech perception in Jordanian Arabic-speaking adults.

Design: Selected stimuli were digitally recorded and were divided into four lists of 25 words each. Speech audiometry was completed for all listeners.

Effectiveness of stapedotomy in improving hearing sensitivity for 53 otosclerotic patients: retrospective review.

Background: Otosclerosis is a common cause of progressive hearing impairment that causes fixation of the stapes. Surgical intervention is the preferred treatment approach to ameliorate the conductive hearing loss associated with stapedial otosclerosis. However, given that it is a difficult and delicate procedure, the surgery may fail for a number of reasons.

The Effect of the Arabic Computer Rehabilitation Program "Rannan" on Sound Detection and Discrimination in Children with Cochlear Implants.

Purpose: The aim of this work is to examine the efficacy of using computer-based training program (Rannan) as an intervention approach to enhance sound detection and discrimination in Arabic-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs).

Research Design: A prospective study comparing performance between two groups of children. Participants were divided into two equal groups that were matched in age and programming strategies.

Feasibility of one-day activation in cochlear implant recipients.

Objective: To determine if cochlear implants recipients can be safely and effectively fitted with their sound processor one day after their implant surgery.

Design: All subjects were implanted with MED-EL Concerto cochlear implant. Subjects' electrode impedance levels, maximum comfortable levels, and threshold levels were measured one day after surgery and compared to measurements obtained one month post implantation using the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Importance of cochlear health for implant function.

Amazing progress has been made in providing useful hearing to hearing-impaired individuals using cochlear implants, but challenges remain. One such challenge is understanding the effects of partial degeneration of the auditory nerve, the target of cochlear implant stimulation. Here we review studies from our human and animal laboratories aimed at characterizing the health of the implanted cochlea and the auditory nerve.

Cochlear implant device activation and programming: 5 days postimplantation.

Objective: Cochlear implants (CIs) are typically activated 3 to 6 weeks after the surgery. For some patients who live in remote areas, this waiting period could impose some personal and financial burdens. The current study examined whether CI recipients can be safely and effectively fitted with their speech processor five days after their implantation.

Using temporal modulation sensitivity to select stimulation sites for processor MAPs in cochlear implant listeners.

Previous studies in our laboratory showed that temporal acuity as assessed by modulation detection thresholds (MDTs) varied across activation sites and that this site-to-site variability was subject specific. Using two 10-channel MAPs, the previous experiments showed that processor MAPs that had better across-site mean (ASM) MDTs yielded better speech recognition than MAPs with poorer ASM MDTs tested in the same subject. The current study extends our earlier work on developing more optimal-fitting strategies to test the feasibility of using a site-selection approach in the clinical domain.

Studies on bilateral cochlear implants at the University of Wisconsin's Binaural Hearing and Speech Laboratory.

This report highlights research projects relevant to binaural and spatial hearing in adults and children. In the past decade we have made progress in understanding the impact of bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs) on performance in adults and children. However, BiCI users typically do not perform as well as normal hearing (NH) listeners.

Across-site patterns of modulation detection: relation to speech recognition.

The aim of this study was to identify across-site patterns of modulation detection thresholds (MDTs) in subjects with cochlear implants and to determine if removal of sites with the poorest MDTs from speech processor programs would result in improved speech recognition. Five hundred millisecond trains of symmetric-biphasic pulses were modulated sinusoidally at 10 Hz and presented at a rate of 900 pps using monopolar stimulation. Subjects were asked to discriminate a modulated pulse train from an unmodulated pulse train for all electrodes in quiet and in the presence of an interleaved unmodulated masker presented on the adjacent site.

Cochlear infrastructure for electrical hearing.

Although the cochlear implant is already the world's most successful neural prosthesis, opportunities for further improvement abound. Promising areas of current research include work on improving the biological infrastructure in the implanted cochlea to optimize reception of cochlear implant stimulation and on designing the pattern of electrical stimulation to take maximal advantage of conditions in the implanted cochlea. In this review we summarize what is currently known about conditions in the cochlea of deaf, implanted humans and then review recent work from our animal laboratory investigating the effects of preserving or reinnervating tissues on psychophysical and electrophysiological measures of implant function.

Relationship between gap detection thresholds and loudness in cochlear-implant users.

Gap detection threshold (GDT) is a commonly used measure of temporal acuity in cochlear-implant (CI) recipients. This measure, like other measures of temporal acuity, shows considerable variation across subjects and also varies across stimulation sites within subjects. The aims of this study were (1) to determine whether across-site variation in GDTs would be reduced or maintained with increased stimulation levels; (2) to determine whether across-site variation in GDTs at low stimulation levels was related to differences in loudness percepts at those same levels; and (3) to determine whether matching loudness levels could reduce across-site differences in GDTs.

Effects of simulated spectral holes on speech intelligibility and spatial release from masking under binaural and monaural listening.

The possibility that "dead regions" or "spectral holes" can account for some differences in performance between bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users and normal-hearing listeners was explored. Using a 20-band noise-excited vocoder to simulate CI processing, this study examined effects of spectral holes on speech reception thresholds (SRTs) and spatial release from masking (SRM) in difficult listening conditions. Prior to processing, stimuli were convolved through head-related transfer-functions to provide listeners with free-field directional cues.