Monaural Beamforming in Bimodal Cochlear Implant Users: Effect of (A)symmetric Directivity and Noise Type.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To evaluate monaural beamforming in bimodally aided cochlear implant (CI) users.

Design

The study enrolled twelve adult bimodal listeners with at least six months of CI-experience and using a contralateral hearing aid (HA) most of the daytime. Participants were uniformly fitted with the same CI speech processor and HA, giving access to an identical monaural beamformer in both ears. A within-subject repeated measures design evaluated three directional configurations [omnidirectional, asymmetric directivity (in CI alone) and symmetric directivity (in both CI and HA)] in two noise types [stationary and fluctuating]. Bimodal speech reception thresholds (SRT) as well as listening effort ratings were assessed in a diffuse noise field.

Results

Symmetric monaural be

SUBMITTER: Devocht EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4990192 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature