Saturday, April 30
09:00 am – 10:30 am
Audiology
Session 28

Michael Dorman, PhD
Level of Instruction: Intermediate   –   Joshua Tree I

This presentation will describe the outcomes of recent studies of patients fit with cochlear implants (CI).  The patient groups will include single CI, bilateral CI, hearing preservation CI (i.e., low-frequency acoustic hearing in both the implanted ear and the contralateral ear), bimodal CI (CI plus low-frequency acoustic hearing in the contralateral ear) and single-sided deaf (SSD) fit with CI.  The performance of the patients in these groups on tests of speech understanding in quiet and in complex listening environments (simulations of a restaurant and a cocktail party) and tests of sound source localization will be described.  The value of having two ears (two CIs or two ears with low-frequency acoustic hearing) will be explored.  Finally the interaction of visual information with speech understanding and sound source localization will also be explored.

Learner Outcomes:  At the completion of this presentation, participants will be able to describe the speech understanding abilities of multiple groups of patients fit with a CI, describe the sound localization abilities of multiple groups of patients fit with a CI and describe the value of visual information for speech understanding by patients fit with a CI.