Cochlear implants partially restore auditory sensation in individuals affected by severe to profound hearing loss. We investigated vowel detection, identification, and discrimination in a group of congenitally-deafened, unilaterally-implanted, Italian children and in a group of age-matched controls, by combining behavioral and neurophysiologic measures. Comparable vowel identification and discrimination performance emerged for cochlear-implant and normalhearing children at the behavioral level. At the neurophysiologic level, on the other hand, cochlear-implant children appeared to lag behind their age-matched normalhearing peers for vowel detection and identification, but not for vowel discrimination. Length of cochlear implant use significantly affected vowel processing at the neurophysiologic level, although not systematically. Copyright © 2013 ISCA.
Processing of /i/ and /u/ in Italian cochlear-implant children: A behavioral and neurophysiologic study
Bottari, Davide;Pavani, Francesco;
2013-01-01
Abstract
Cochlear implants partially restore auditory sensation in individuals affected by severe to profound hearing loss. We investigated vowel detection, identification, and discrimination in a group of congenitally-deafened, unilaterally-implanted, Italian children and in a group of age-matched controls, by combining behavioral and neurophysiologic measures. Comparable vowel identification and discrimination performance emerged for cochlear-implant and normalhearing children at the behavioral level. At the neurophysiologic level, on the other hand, cochlear-implant children appeared to lag behind their age-matched normalhearing peers for vowel detection and identification, but not for vowel discrimination. Length of cochlear implant use significantly affected vowel processing at the neurophysiologic level, although not systematically. Copyright © 2013 ISCA.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione



