Nerve degeneration may flip polarity sensitivity toward anodic dominance in implant users.

Evidence

First, the modeling results of Rattay et al. ( 2001 ) suggest that polarity sensitivity may strongly depend on the state of degeneration and demyelination of the peripheral processes of the neurons. Specifically, the model predicts lower anodic thresholds for degenerated peripheral processes. Although post-mortem studies have shown that such degeneration can occur in CI listeners, there is no currently available method to evaluate the presence of peripheral processes in patients. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2272