A multiple-channel cochlear implant. Evaluation using speech tracking.

Two totally deaf patients who had received multiple-channel cochlear implants were tested using a speech "tracking" procedure in which they had to repeat verbatim passages of connected discourse. Their performance was assessed by calculating the tracking rate (words per minute) each session. Testing was carried out under two conditions--lipreading alone and lipreading in conjunction with a multiple-channel cochlear implant and laboratory speech processor. Lipreading with the cochlear implant increased the tracking rates by a factor of four for one patient and by a factor of two for the other when compared with lipreading alone.