Moberly Aaron C, Houston Derek M, Harris Michael S, Adunka Oliver F, Castellanos Irina
Department of Otolaryngology The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
Laryngoscope Investig Otolaryngol. 2017 Jul 19;2(5):254-261. doi: 10.1002/lio2.90. eCollection 2017 Oct.
Neurocognitive functions contribute to speech recognition in postlingual adults with cochlear implants (CIs). In particular, better verbal working memory (WM) on modality-specific (auditory) WM tasks predicts better speech recognition. It remains unclear, however, whether this association can be attributed to basic underlying modality-general neurocognitive functions, or whether it is solely a result of the degraded nature of auditory signals delivered by the CI. Three hypotheses were tested: 1) Both modality-specific and modality-general tasks of verbal WM would predict scores of sentence recognition in speech-shaped noise; 2) Basic modality-general neurocognitive functions of controlled fluency and inhibition-concentration would predict both modality-specific and modality-general verbal WM; and 3) Scores on both tasks of verbal WM would mediate the effects of more basic neurocognitive functions on sentence recognition.
Cross-sectional study of 30 postlingual adults with CIs and thirty age-matched normal-hearing (NH) controls.
Participants were tested for sentence recognition in speech-shaped noise, along with verbal WM using a modality-general task (Reading Span) and an auditory modality-specific task (Listening Span). Participants were also assessed for controlled fluency and inhibition-concentration abilities.
For CI users only, Listening Span scores predicted sentence recognition, and Listening Span scores mediated the effects of inhibition-concentration on speech recognition. Scores on Reading Span were not related to sentence recognition for either group.
Inhibition-concentration skills play an important role in CI users' sentence recognition skills, with effects mediated by modality-specific verbal WM. Further studies will examine inhibition-concentration and WM skills as novel targets for clinical intervention.
神经认知功能有助于语后聋成人人工耳蜗（CI）使用者的言语识别。特别是，在特定模态（听觉）工作记忆（WM）任务上表现出更好的言语工作记忆，预示着更好的言语识别能力。然而，尚不清楚这种关联是可归因于基本的潜在通用模态神经认知功能，还是仅仅是人工耳蜗传递的听觉信号退化的结果。本研究检验了三个假设：1）言语工作记忆的特定模态和通用模态任务均能预测言语噪声中句子识别的得分；2）受控制的流畅性和抑制-注意力集中等基本通用模态神经认知功能能够预测特定模态和通用模态的言语工作记忆；3）言语工作记忆任务的得分将介导更基本的神经认知功能对句子识别的影响。
对30名语后聋人工耳蜗使用者和30名年龄匹配的听力正常（NH）对照者进行横断面研究。
对参与者进行言语噪声中句子识别测试，同时使用通用模态任务（阅读广度）和听觉特定模态任务（听力广度）进行言语工作记忆测试。还对参与者的受控制流畅性和抑制-注意力集中能力进行了评估。
仅对于人工耳蜗使用者，听力广度得分可预测句子识别，且听力广度得分介导了抑制-注意力集中对言语识别的影响。阅读广度得分与两组的句子识别均无关。
抑制-注意力集中技能在人工耳蜗使用者的句子识别技能中起重要作用，其影响由特定模态的言语工作记忆介导。进一步的研究将把抑制-注意力集中和工作记忆技能作为临床干预的新靶点进行研究。
4级。
