The perception of consonants in reverberation and noise by adults fitted with bimodal devices

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the contribution of a contralateral hearing aid (HA) to the perception of consonants, in terms of voicing, manner, and place of articulation cues in reverberation and noise by adult cochlear implantees aided by bimodal fittings.

Method

Eight post-lingually deafened adult cochlear implant listeners with a fully inserted cochlear implant in one ear and low-frequency hearing in the other ear were tested on consonant perception. The subjects were presented with consonant stimuli processed in the following experimental conditions: one quiet condition, two different reverberation times (0.3 s and 1.0 s), and the combination of two reverberation times with a single signal-to-noise ratio (SNR = 5 dB).

Results

Consonant perception improved significantly when listening in combination with a contralateral hearing aid (HA) as opposed to listening with a cochlear implant (CI) alone in 0.3 s and 1.0 s of reverberation. Significantly higher scores were also noted when noise was added to 0.3 s of reverberation.

Conclusion

A considerable benefit was noted from the additional acoustic information in conditions of reverberation and reverberation plus noise. The bimodal benefit observed was more pronounced for voicing and manner of articulation than for place of articulation.