Original Paper

Cognitive Predictors of Improvements in Adults' Spoken Word Recognition Six Months after Cochlear Implant Activation
Gitry Heydebrand^a, Sandra Hale^c, Lisa Potts^b, Brenda Gotter^b, Margaret Skinner^b

Departments of
^aPsychiatry and
^bOtolaryngology, Washington University School of Medicine, and
^cDepartment of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., USA

Address of Corresponding Author

Audiol Neurotol 2007;12:254-264 (DOI: 10.1159/000101473)

  Key Words

• Cochlear implants
• Cognition, cochlear implant
• Spoken word recognition, adults

  Abstract

This study investigated whether cognitive measures obtained prior to cochlear implant surgery activation could predict improvements in spoken word recognition in adult cochlear implant recipients 6 months after activation. In addition to noncognitive factors identified by previous studies (i.e. younger age, shorter duration of hearing loss), the present results indicated that improvement in spoken word recognition was associated with higher verbal learning scores and better verbal working memory. Contrary to expectation, neither general cognitive ability nor processing speed was significantly correlated with outcome at 6 months. Multiple regression analyses revealed that a combination of verbal learning scores and lip-reading skill accounted for nearly 72% of the individual differences in improvement in spoken word recognition (i.e. the variance in spoken word recognition scores at 6 months that remained unexplained after controlling for baseline spoken word recognition scores). These findings have relevance for research on auditory processing with cochlear implants as well as implications for clinical interventions.

Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Gitry Heydebrand, PhD
Department of Psychiatry, Box 8134
Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid
St. Louis MO 63110 (USA)
Tel. +1 314 362 3069, Fax +1 314 362 7017, E-Mail Heydebrg@msnotes.wustl.edu

  Article Information

Received: August 2, 2006
Accepted after revision: January 31, 2007
Published online: April 2, 2007
Number of Print Pages : 11
Number of Figures : 2, Number of Tables : 7, Number of References : 47