Extracochlear electrodes were correctly identified audiologically in 60% of cases and in surgical reports in 6% of cases; however, it is possible that at least a portion of these cases involved postoperative electrode migration. Given these findings, postoperative CT scans can provide information regarding basal electrode location, which could help improve programming accuracy, associated frequency allocation, and audibility with appropriate deactivation of extracochlear electrodes.

Purpose We employed a time-gated word recognition task to investigate how children who are hard of hearing (CHH) and children with normal hearing (CNH) combine cognitive–linguistic abilities and acoustic–phonetic cues to recognize words in sentence-final position. Method The current study included 40 CHH and 30 CNH in 1st or 3rd grade. Participants completed vocabulary and working memory tests and a time-gated word recognition task consisting of 14 high- and 14 low-predictability sentences. A time-to-event model was used to evaluate the effect of the independent variables (age, hearing status, predictability) on word recognition. Mediation models were used to examine the associations between the independent variables (vocabulary size and working memory), aided audibility, and word recognition. Results Gated words were identified significantly earlier for high-predictability than low-predictability sentences. First-grade CHH and CNH showed no significant difference in performance. Third-grade CHH needed more information than CNH to identify final words. Aided audibility was associated with word recognition. This association was fully mediated by vocabulary size but not working memory. Conclusions Both CHH and CNH benefited from the addition of semantic context. Interventions that focus on consistent aided audibility and vocabulary may enhance children's ability to fill in gaps in incoming messages.

Objective: To create and validate a Spanish sentence test for evaluation of speech understanding of Spanish-speaking listeners with hearing loss or cochlear implants (CI). Study Design: Two thousand sentences were recorded from two male and two female speakers. The average intelligibility of each sentence was estimated as the mean score achieved by five listeners presented with a five-channel cochlear implant simulation. The mean scores of each sentence were used to construct 42 lists of 20 sentences with similar mean scores. List equivalency was then validated by presenting all lists to 10 CI users and in a 2-list comparison in a clinical setting to 38 CI patients. Setting: Tertiary referral center. Patients: Normal-hearing listeners (n = 5), CI users in a research study (n = 10), and CI patients (n = 38) in routine clinical follow-up. Intervention: Multiple sentence lists from a newly minted speech perception test. Main Outcome Measures: List intelligibility and equivalence across sentence lists. Results: Forty-two lists of sentences were equivalent when all lists were presented in random order to 10 adult CI recipients. The variability of scores observed on lists presented to the same listener in the same condition was captured using a binomial distribution model based on a 40-item list for 38 adult implant recipients. Conclusion: The Spanish AzBio Sentence Test includes 42 lists of 20 sentences. These sentences are roughly equivalent in terms of overall difficulty and confidence limits have been provided to assess the significance of variability in list scores observed within or across conditions. These materials will be of benefit when assessing native Spanish speakers in both research and clinical settings.

Background: Bilateral cochlear implantation is the standard of care for individuals with moderate sloping-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss who do not receive benefit from appropriately fit hearing aids. Because of financial, insurance, or medical reasons, some unilateral cochlear implant (CI) recipients are unable to obtain a second CI. Here, we evaluated the first clinically available solution for individuals who have been unilaterally implanted and who do not or cannot use technology (e.g., hearing aid or CI) on the non-implanted ear. Purpose: We aimed to investigate how the addition of a contralateral routing of signal (CROS) device could provide objective and/or subjective benefit to adult CI recipients with moderate-to-profound hearing loss in the non-implanted ear. Research Design: Single-center prospective study using a within-subjects repeated-measures design. Study Sample: Participants included ten experienced unilateral CI recipients with severe-to-profound (n = 9) or moderate-to-profound (n = 1) sensorineural hearing loss in the non-implanted ear. At the time of study enrollment, participants did not use any technology on the non-implanted ear. No other exclusion criteria were used. Intervention: Individuals were tested with and without a CROS device worn on the non-implanted ear. Data Collection and Analysis: We obtained measures of speech understanding in quiet (50 and 65 dBA) and in noise (+5-dB signal-to-noise ratio with a 65-dBA speech signal) both with and without the CROS device in an acute listening condition. Subjective benefit was assessed via the Speech, Spatial and Qualities 12-item questionnaire before CROS fitting and after two weeks of continuous use. A mixed-model, repeated-measures analysis of variance was completed with three talker locations and three presentation levels included as within-subjects factors and the presence or absence of a CROS device as a between-subjects factor. Results: There was an 11% improvement in speech understanding in noise with the addition of the CROS device when speech was located at 0? azimuth. Subjective benefit in the speech domain of the SSQ was also observed. Conclusions: Use of CROS provided both subjective and objective speech recognition benefit for unilateral CI recipients who do not have access to bilateral cochlear implantation.

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