For the speech processing strategy, implant system, and subjects evaluated in this study, the group results indicated that the use of electrical stimulation rates higher than 250 pps/ch (up to 1615 pps/ch) generally provided no significant improvement to speech comprehension. However, individual results indicated that perceptual benefits could be obtained by adjusting rate of stimulation optimally to suit each subject. Results from one subject, together with tinnitus problems arising from high-rate stimulation for another subject, indicated that high rates of stimulation may in fact be undesirable for some subjects.

Pitch ranking of sung vowel stimuli, separated in fundamental frequency (F0) by half an octave, was measured with a group of eleven Nucleus 24 cochlear implant recipients using different sound coding strategies. In three consecutive studies, either two or three different sound coding strategies were compared to the Advanced Combinational Encoder (ACE) strategy. These strategies included Continuous Interleaved Sampling (CIS), Peak Derived Timing (PDT), Modulation Depth Enhancement (MDE), F0 Synchronized ACE (FOSync), and Multi-channel Envelope Modulation (MEM), the last four being experimental strategies. While pitch ranking results on average were poor compared to those expected for most normal hearing listeners, significantly higher scores were obtained using the MEM, MDE, and FOSync strategies compared to ACE. These strategies enhanced coding of temporal F0 cues by providing deeper modulation cues to F0 coincidentally in time across all activated electrodes. In the final study, speech recognition tests were also conducted using ACE, CIS, MDE, and MEM. Similar results among all strategies were obtained for word tests in quiet and between ACE and MEM for sentence tests in noise. These findings demonstrate that strategies such as MEM may aid perception of pitch and still adequately code segmental speech features as per existing coding strategies.

A new processor, called the spectral maxima sound processor (SMSP), has been developed for the University of Melbourne/Nucleus Limited multielectrode cochlear implant. The SMSP analyses sound signals by means of a bandpass filterbank having 16 channels which are allocated tonotopically to the implanted electrodes. Every 4 ms, typically, the six channels with the largest amplitudes are selected, and six corresponding electrodes are activated. In an ongoing study the performance of the SMSP is being compared with that of the Mini Speech Processor (MSP). Some results of speech perception tests from the first two SMSP users are presented, in which scores for the recognition of vowels, consonants, and words all showed significant increases over the corresponding MSP scores.

Four adult bilateral cochlear implant users, with good open-set sentence recognition, were tested with three different sound coding strategies for binaural speech unmasking and their ability to localize 100 and 500 Hz click trains in noise. Two of the strategies tested were envelope-based strategies that are clinically widely used. The third was a research strategy that additionally preserved fine-timing cues at low frequencies. Speech reception thresholds were determined in diotic noise for diotic and interaurally time-delayed speech using direct audio input to a bilateral research processor. Localization in noise was assessed in the free field. Overall results, for both speech and localization tests, were similar with all three strategies. None provided a binaural speech unmasking advantage due to the application of 700 micros interaural time delay to the speech signal, and localization results showed similar response patterns across strategies that were well accounted for by the use of broadband interaural level cues. The data from both experiments combined indicate that, in contrast to normal hearing, timing cues available from natural head-width delays do not offer binaural advantages with present methods of electrical stimulation, even when fine-timing cues are explicitly coded.