Purpose In individuals with cochlear implants, speech recognition is not associated with tests of working memory that primarily reflect storage, such as forward digit span. In contrast, our previous work found that vocoded speech recognition in individuals with normal hearing was correlated with performance on a forward digit span task. A possible explanation for this difference across groups is that variability in auditory resolution across individuals with cochlear implants could conceal the true relationship between speech and memory tasks. Here, our goal was to determine if performance on forward digit span and speech recognition tasks are correlated in individuals with cochlear implants after controlling for individual differences in auditory resolution. Method We measured sentence recognition ability in 20 individuals with cochlear implants with Perceptually Robust English Sentence Test Open-set sentences. Spectral and temporal modulation detection tasks were used to assess individual differences in auditory resolution, auditory forward digit span was used to assess working memory storage, and self-reported word familiarity was used to assess vocabulary. Results Individual differences in speech recognition were predicted by spectral and temporal resolution. A correlation was found between forward digit span and speech recognition, but this correlation was not significant after controlling for spectral and temporal resolution. No relationship was found between word familiarity and speech recognition. Forward digit span performance was not associated with individual differences in auditory resolution. Conclusions Our findings support the idea that sentence recognition in individuals with cochlear implants is primarily limited by individual differences in working memory processing, not storage. Studies examining the relationship between speech and memory should control for individual differences in auditory resolution.

Objective: To characterize cervical and ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (c- and oVEMP) responses using an impulse hammer (IH) in adults and pediatrics at standardized force levels and evaluate: the relationship of force level on VEMP amplitude, sternocleidomastoid (SCM) contraction on cVEMP amplitude, required number of tap stimuli, and subject comfort. Using these data, optimal testing parameters were selected. Study Design: Prospective study. Setting: Tertiary referral center. Patients: Seventy-eight healthy adults, adolescents, and children with no hearing or vestibular deficits. Interventions: All subjects received c- and oVEMP testing using IH and 500 Hz tone burst air conduction stimuli. Adults received hard, medium, and soft force levels. Adolescents and children received medium and soft force levels. A comfort questionnaire was administered pre- and post-testing. Main Outcome Measures: IH VEMP response parameters (response rates, latency, cVEMP pre-stimulus SCM Electromyography [EMG], and peak-to-peak amplitude) were assessed per force level. Subjective reporting for patient comfort was also assessed. Results: VEMP response rates ranged from 92 to 100%. Force had a linear relationship with VEMP amplitude. SCM contraction had a linear relationship with raw cVEMP amplitude; however, dissipated with amplitude normalization. Force level did not impact the number of taps needed. A minimum peak force of 15 to 20 N, accounting for SCM contraction, and using a lower EMG monitoring limit for cVEMP is recommended to elicit reliable responses. Conclusions: Overall, IH VEMP is appropriate and comfortable to use in adults and pediatrics and can be useful when an air conduction stimulus is contraindicated or not preferred.

Children with mild-to-moderate hearing loss do not have significant deficits in overall voice emotion recognition compared with their normally hearing peers, but mechanisms involved may be different between the 2 groups. The results suggest a stronger role for linguistic ability in emotion recognition by children with normal hearing than by children with hearing loss.

Objectives: Identification of emotional prosody in speech declines with age in normally hearing (NH) adults. Cochlear implant (CI) users have deficits in the perception of prosody, but the effects of age on vocal emotion recognition by adult postlingually deaf CI users are not known. The objective of the present study was to examine age-related changes in CI users’ and NH listeners’ emotion recognition. Design: Participants included 18 CI users (29.6 to 74.5 years) and 43 NH adults (25.8 to 74.8 years). Participants listened to emotion-neutral sentences spoken by a male and female talker in five emotions (happy, sad, scared, angry, neutral). NH adults heard them in four conditions: unprocessed (full spectrum) speech, 16-channel, 8-channel, and 4-channel noise-band vocoded speech. The adult CI users only listened to unprocessed (full spectrum) speech. Sensitivity (d’) to emotions and Reaction Times were obtained using a single-interval, five-alternative, forced-choice paradigm. Results: For NH participants, results indicated age-related declines in Accuracy and d’, and age-related increases in Reaction Time in all conditions. Results indicated an overall deficit, as well as age-related declines in overall d’ for CI users, but Reaction Times were elevated compared with NH listeners and did not show age-related changes. Analysis of Accuracy scores (hit rates) were generally consistent with d’ data. Conclusions: Both CI users and NH listeners showed age-related deficits in emotion identification. The CI users’ overall deficit in emotion perception, and their slower response times, suggest impaired social communication which may in turn impact overall well-being, particularly so for older CI users, as lower vocal emotion recognition scores have been associated with poorer subjective quality of life in CI patients.

Voice emotion recognition declines with age in normally hearing (NH) adults. However, the effects of aging on voice emotion recognition in NH listeners with spectrally degraded stimuli are neither known nor the effects of aging on adult cochlear implant (CI) users. This study explored age-related effects on voice emotion recognition in NH adults listening to spectrally degraded speech and aimed to compare these changes to age-related changes in adult CI users’ voice emotion recognition with unprocessed speech. Participants listened to 12 emotion-neutral sentences, each spoken with 5 emotions (happy, sad, scared, angry, and neutral) by a male and female talker. Participants identified which emotion they heard while listening to sentences that were either unprocessed or CI-simulated. Preliminary results indicate declines in overall percent correct scores and increased reaction time with both age and increasing spectral degradation in NH adults. Results also suggest age-related effects on percent correct scores and reaction times within the CI group alone. These results have important implications in the aging population of adults with NH and with CIs because limitations in the quality peer to peer interactions have been associated with a decrease in perceived quality of life. [Work supported by R01 DC014233 and P20 GM109023.]