N-of-m cochlear processing strategies resist benefit from electrode deactivation

Evidence

Some n-of-m (n channels with highest input amplitudes stimulated out of a possible m channels; e.g. ACE (8-of-22) or SPEAK) strategies may not benefit from deactivation of electrodes due to the simplification of the information delivery already inherent in the strategy. … Cochlear users were less likely to benefit from electrode deactivation than users of the other devices. As speculated earlier it could be that the n-of-m strategies used in the Cochlear device may be less sensitive to channel overlap effects because not all channels are stimulated in each cycle. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2051