Evaluation of noise reduction technologies in a contemporary cochlear implant system

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The Hearing Journal - May, 2011

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Evaluation of noise reduction technologies in a contemporary cochlear

implant system

Wolfe, Jace PhD; Hudson, PhD; , PhD; Schafer, C. PhD

Advances in cochlear implant technology have resulted in excellent outcomes

for most pediatric and adult recipients. Specifically, most adult cochlear

implant users can converse over the telephone and perform at ceiling levels

(i.e., 100%) on open-set sentence recognition tests used for clinical

assessment,1-4

<http://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/Fulltext/2011/05000/Evaluation_of

_noise_reduction_technologies_in_a.6.aspx#P59> while many children who

receive a cochlear implant at an early age develop age-appropriate speech,

language, and academic abilities.5-7

<http://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/Fulltext/2011/05000/Evaluation_of

_noise_reduction_technologies_in_a.6.aspx#P63>

Despite these advances, many cochlear implant users continue to experience

substantial difficulty with speech recognition in noisy environments. In

particular, recent studies have shown that speech understanding decreases by

30 to 60 percentage points when performance in quiet is compared with

performance at commonly-encountered signal-to-noise ratios ranging from +4

and +10 dB.8-11

<http://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/Fulltext/2011/05000/Evaluation_of

_noise_reduction_technologies_in_a.6.aspx#P66> As a result, cochlear

implant manufacturers invest considerable resources into the development of

technologies designed to improve speech perception in noise. For example,

the newly-introduced Cochlear Nucleus 5 cochlear implant system possesses

several features that are intended to improve speech understanding in noisy

environments, which include:

* Preprocessing strategies designed to augment the speech signal while

reducing the salience of the background noise;

* Microphone technology intended to improve the signal-to-noise ratio to the

listener; and

* Simple and improved connectivity of the implant processor to personal FM

systems.

The following three sections provide an overview and evidence to support the

use of the aforementioned features through discussions of preliminary

experiences from studies conducted with children and adults using the

Nucleus 5 cochlear implant system.

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Complete article: http://tinyurl.com/3brrkdh