One challenge facing a postlingually-deafened adult cochlear implant (CI) user is the possibility that there may be a frequency mismatch between the incoming acoustic signal and the characteristic frequency of the neurons stimulated by the implant. While listeners can clearly adapt to frequency mismatches, there is a lack of information that can allow us to separate the adaptation to frequency mismatches from other distortions that CI users face. In the proposed experiments, we address this issue by examining CI users who have residual hearing in the contralateral ear. Given that frequency mismatches are often heard perceptually as a change in the pitch of the signal relative to the representation stored in long-term memory, we plan to compare the pitch percepts elicited by electrical stimulation with those from the acoustic hearing in the contralateral ear, and observe whether those percepts change over time. Our assumption is that such changes in electrical pitch perception indicate adaptation to a frequency mismatch. By this line of logic, we plan to address the issue of quantifying adaptation to frequency mismatch via three experiments. In the first experiment, we plan to ask CI patients who have sufficient residual hearing in the contralateral ear to match the pitch elicited by stimulation of a given electrode to the pitch elicited by a tone presented to the acoustic-hearing ear. We plan to follow these pitch matches over the first two years of device use, and determine whether changes in pitch perception are also related to changes in speech perception. In the second experiment, we plan to determine the cochlear size and the location of the electrode within the cochlea. From this, we can estimate the amount of frequency mismatch that a given CI user faces. Then, using the data obtained in Experiment 1, we will explore whether larger initial frequency mismatches are associated with larger amounts of adaptation, or with worse overall performance. Finally, in the third experiment, we plan to track electric-acoustic evoked interactions in the P1-N1-P2 complex over the first two years of device use in order to obtain an objective measure of adaptation to frequency mismatch. Taken together, these proposed experiments represent one of the first attempts to quantify the amount of frequency mismatch a given patient has, and the extent to which they are able to adapt to that mismatch. As such, they address a significant lack of knowledge in the cochlear implant field. More importantly, the information gained from these proposed projects has the potential to directly shape future fitting of cochlear implants, and may have an effect on patient care. Here, we propose the use of novel techniques to address this key issue, and as such, we believe that the proposed research has a strong translational component that may ultimately benefit public health for hearing-impaired populations.

Public Health Relevance

Cochlear implants help many people hear, but the signal they provide can be significantly different from that provided by an intact auditory system. Patients who had acoustic hearing, lost it, and then received a cochlear implant, must adapt to the mismatch between the signal provided by the implant and the representations of speech that are stored in their long-term memory. The present study will investigate this adaptation process using behavioral and physiological measures, and this information may assist clinicians in helping patients optimize the benefit they obtain from their device.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award (K25)
Project #
5K25DC010834-04
Application #
8460866
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZDC1-SRB-L (45))
Program Officer
Sklare, Dan
Project Start
2010-05-01
Project End
2015-11-30
Budget Start
2013-05-01
Budget End
2014-11-30
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$186,165
Indirect Cost
$13,790
Name
New York University
Department
Otolaryngology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
121911077
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10016
Tan, Chin-Tuan; Martin, Brett A; Svirsky, Mario A (2018) A potential neurophysiological correlate of electric-acoustic pitch matching in adult cochlear implant users: Pilot data. Cochlear Implants Int 19:198-209
Tan, Chin-Tuan; Martin, Brett; Svirsky, Mario A (2017) Pitch Matching between Electrical Stimulation of a Cochlear Implant and Acoustic Stimuli Presented to a Contralateral Ear with Residual Hearing. J Am Acad Audiol 28:187-199
Fitzgerald, Matthew B; Sagi, Elad; Morbiwala, Tasnim A et al. (2013) Feasibility of real-time selection of frequency tables in an acoustic simulation of a cochlear implant. Ear Hear 34:763-72
Tan, Chin-Tuan; Svirsky, Mario; Anwar, Abbas et al. (2013) Real-time measurement of electrode impedance during intracochlear electrode insertion. Laryngoscope 123:1028-32
Svirsky, Mario A; Ding, Nai; Sagi, Elad et al. (2013) VALIDATION OF ACOUSTIC MODELS OF AUDITORY NEURAL PROSTHESES. Proc IEEE Int Conf Acoust Speech Signal Process 2013:8629-8633
Svirsky, Mario A; Fitzgerald, Matthew B; Neuman, Arlene et al. (2012) Current and planned cochlear implant research at New York University Laboratory for Translational Auditory Research. J Am Acad Audiol 23:422-37
Jethanamest, Daniel; Tan, Chin-Tuan; Fitzgerald, Matthew B et al. (2010) A new software tool to optimize frequency table selection for cochlear implants. Otol Neurotol 31:1242-7