Output details

Comparison of bimodal and bilateral cochlear implant users on speech recognition with competing talker, music perception, affective prosody discrimination and talker identification

Significance of output:

Over 250,000 people have had their hearing restored with cochlear implants. Although hearing is generally good in quiet, some situations remain difficult: listening in noisy environments, music, recognising tone of voice and identifying who is talking. Some patients now have a second (bilateral) implant; others continue using a hearing aid on the other ear (bimodal) and avoid additional surgery. Supported by a $65,000 grant from the US National Institutes of Health, project found no significant differences between bimodal and bilateral patients, suggesting that continuing using a hearing aid instead of having another surgery may provide equivalent benefit in some situations.