Psychophysical studies using a multiple-electrode cochlear implant in patients who were deafened early in life.

Psychophysical studies were conducted on 10 cochlear implant patients, between 5 and 23 years of age at the time of surgery, who were deafened prior to 4 years of age. The multiple-electrode prosthesis manufactured by Cochlear Ltd. was used. Identification studies, the recognition of 2-4 stimuli after some training, were conducted on 3 of the 10 patients. For current level and repetition rate identification, performance was comparable to that observed for postlingual adult patients. For electrode position identification, however, performance was much poorer than that observed for postlingual adults. In general, the difference limens for current level, repetition rate and duration, and the gap detection thresholds were similar to those observed for postlingual adults. For 3 patients whose etiology was Usher's syndrome, the repetition rate limens at higher rates were larger than those of the other patients. The limens for electrode position, measured in a discrimination task, were 1-3 electrodes for most patients. However, for 3 patients, limens of 6-10 electrodes were recorded. For numerosity judgements, the counting of stimuli in a temporal series as a function of the rate of presentation, the patients were less successful at counting for rates of 3-8/s than for lower rates (1-2/s).