Moberly Aaron C, Houston Derek M, Castellanos Irina
Department of Otolaryngology The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Columbus Ohio USA.
Laryngoscope Investig Otolaryngol. 2016 Dec;1(6):154-162. doi: 10.1002/lio2.38. Epub 2016 Nov 14.
Unexplained variability in speech recognition outcomes among postlingually deafened adults with cochlear implants (CIs) is an enormous clinical and research barrier to progress. This variability is only partially explained by patient factors (e.g., duration of deafness) and auditory sensitivity (e.g., spectral and temporal resolution). This study sought to determine whether non-auditory neurocognitive skills could explain speech recognition variability exhibited by adult CI users.
Thirty postlingually deafened adults with CIs and thirty age-matched normal-hearing (NH) controls were enrolled.
Participants were assessed for recognition of words in sentences in noise and several non-auditory measures of neurocognitive function. These non-auditory tasks assessed global intelligence (problem-solving), controlled fluency, working memory, and inhibition-concentration abilities.
For CI users, faster response times during a non-auditory task of inhibition-concentration predicted better recognition of sentences in noise; however, similar effects were not evident for NH listeners.
Findings from this study suggest that inhibition-concentration skills play a role in speech recognition for CI users, but less so for NH listeners. Further research will be required to elucidate this role and its potential as a novel target for intervention.
语后聋成年人工耳蜗（CI）使用者的言语识别结果存在无法解释的变异性，这是临床和研究取得进展的巨大障碍。这种变异性仅部分由患者因素（如耳聋持续时间）和听觉敏感性（如频谱和时间分辨率）来解释。本研究旨在确定非听觉神经认知技能是否能够解释成年CI使用者表现出的言语识别变异性。
招募了30名语后聋成年CI使用者和30名年龄匹配的听力正常（NH）对照者。
对参与者进行噪声环境下句子中单词识别的评估以及神经认知功能的多项非听觉测量。这些非听觉任务评估整体智力（解决问题能力）、受控流畅性、工作记忆和抑制-注意力集中能力。
对于CI使用者，在抑制-注意力集中的非听觉任务中更快的反应时间预示着在噪声环境下对句子的识别更好；然而，对于NH听众，类似的效果并不明显。
本研究结果表明，抑制-注意力集中技能在CI使用者的言语识别中起作用，但在NH听众中作用较小。需要进一步研究来阐明这一作用及其作为新型干预靶点的潜力。
