Pre- and Postoperative Binaural Unmasking for Bimodal Cochlear Implant Listeners
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Ear & Hearing 2017;XX;00–00Abstract: Cochlear implants (CIs) are increasingly recommended to
individuals with residual bilateral acoustic hearing. Although new hearing-
preserving electrode designs and surgical approaches show great
promise, CI recipients are still at risk to lose acoustic hearing in the
implanted ear, which could prevent the ability to take advantage of binaural
unmasking to aid speech recognition in noise. This study examined
the tradeoff between the benefits of a CI for speech understanding in noise and the potential loss of binaural unmasking for CI recipients with some bilateral preoperative acoustic hearing.
Cochlear implants (CIs) are increasingly recommended to
individuals with residual bilateral acoustic hearing. Although new hearing-
preserving electrode designs and surgical approaches show great
promise, CI recipients are still at risk to lose acoustic hearing in the
implanted ear, which could prevent the ability to take advantage of binaural
unmasking to aid speech recognition in noise. This study examined
the tradeoff between the benefits of a CI for speech understanding in noise and the potential loss of binaural unmasking for CI recipients with some bilateral preoperative acoustic hearing.