Deactivating non-tonotopic electrodes improved speech perception for most implant users after one month.

Evidence

Work by Saleh (Saleh et al. 2013 ; Saleh 2013 ) using listeners with more up-to-date sound processing strategies also demonstrated positive findings when deactivating electrodes. They based channel selection on acoustic pitch ranking. Electrodes were identified for deactivation if they did not provide distinct or tonotopic pitch information. Twenty-five participants were enrolled. They received take-home experimental maps for a 1-month time period before being assessed. Assessments were conducted with the clinical map at baseline and again following experience with the experimental map. They found statistically significant improvements for electrode deactivation on speech perception tests for 16 of the 25 participants (67 %). For the Cochlear users 56 % (five out of nine) gained benefit compared to 69 % for the AB and MED-EL users (11 out of 16). Participant numbers were small but there was a trend for fewer Cochlear users to benefit compared to other devices; similar to that observed in Noble et al. ( 2014 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2057