Why do two identical implantees perform differently? This fundamental question has not yet been answered despite the extensive research in the field. The authors attempted to clarify the issue, or at least approach it, assessing the association between deficits in auditory frequency discrimination and speech recognition in deaf adults with cochlear implants. The study included 36 subjects; 20 adults with cochlear implants and 16 controls (normal-hearing adults). For research purposes the authors divided the implantees into two groups, proficient and non-proficient users (10 in each group). The comparison outcomes revealed that the normal-hearing controls outperformed the non-proficient implantees with regard to auditory frequency discrimination but they did not outperform the proficient implantees. Moreover, the statistical analysis found a significant relationship between speech recognition and frequency discrimination. This is very interesting although the authors themselves admit that no causal link can be established from the present study. Closer inspection of the results reveals that the statistically significant association is true only for the lower frequency of 500Hz.
Is auditory frequency discrimination related to speech recognition in implantees?
Reviewed by Thomas Nikolopoulos
Deficits in auditory frequency discrimination and speech recognition in cochlear implant users.
CONTRIBUTOR
Thomas Nikolopoulos
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Athens, Greece.
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