Noise improves suprathreshold discrimination in cochlear-implant listeners

• Published in: Hearing research Vol. 186; no. 1; pp. 91 - 93
• Main Authors: Behnam, Shahdad E., Zeng, Fan-Gang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.12.2003; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Cochlear implant; Cochlear Implants; Ear, auditive nerve, cochleovestibular tract, facial nerve: diseases, semeiology; Harmonic complex; Humans; Loudness Perception - physiology; Medical sciences; Noise; Non tumoral diseases; Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; Speech Perception - physiology; Stochastic resonance; Cochlear implant; CI, cochlear implant; Harmonic complex; Stochastic resonance; Noise; Harmonic; Human; Implant; Internal ear disease; Auditory disorder; Tuning; Hearing loss; Acoustic stimulus; Vowel; White noise; Cochlea; ENT disease; Resonance; Stimulus discrimination
• ISSN: 0378-5955; 1878-5891
• DOI: 10.1016/S0378-5955(03)00307-1

The present study aimed to examine the effect of noise on vowel-like suprathreshold discrimination in cochlear-implant listeners. The task was to detect an increment in level at the middle harmonic (400 Hz) in the background of a seven-harmonic complex from 100 to 700 Hz in 100-Hz steps. The task was performed in the absence (control) and presence of a white noise presented over a 20–35-dB range from inaudible to loud. The present result shows that discrimination of suprathreshold harmonic stimuli was significantly enhanced, particularly at the soft signal level, with suprathreshold noise. This result suggests that tuning of the noise level is required to optimize performance of different tasks in cochlear implants.