Comparison of speech encoding strategies (speak, ace, cis)

Authors

Dr. med. Ferenc Tóth (Szeged, Hungary)
Dr. med. József Jóri (Szeged, Hungary)
Dr. med. József Géza Kiss (Szeged, Hungary)
Dr. med. J. Czigner (Szeged, Hungary)
Dr. med. A Torkos (Szeged, Hungary)
Dr. med. A Szamosközi (Szeged, Hungary)
Dr. med. Elemer Nagy (Budapest, Hungary)

Proceedings

XXX Congress of the NES - Oporto - Portugal

Topics

Sensology
Hearing
Sensology
Hearing
Otologic tests
Sensology
Sensology
Hearing
Surgery

Keywords

Children, Cochlear implant, Cochlear implantation, Speech encoding.

Abstract

The developement of new cochlear implant devices allows the opportunity to use more sophisticated speech encoding strategies. The Nucleus 24 channels cochlear implant system offers the possibility to compare different strategies within the same patient. The aim of this study was to determine the optimal map by changing the three available speech encoding strategies (SPEAK, ACE, CIS).
The performance with the SPEAK and the ACE strategy were compared in 15 children. Patients were divided into two groups. Group 1 was initially fitted with the SPEAK strategy, and Group 2 was initially fitted with the ACE strategy. We compared the three strategies in four patients (Group 3), all of whom tried SPEAK, ACE and CIS as well.
Half of the patients in Group 1 preferred SPEAK, whereas the other half preferred the

ACE strategy. In contrast with this all the patients of Group 2 preferred ACE not wanting to use SPEAK. Group 3 showed greater variety. One patient chose to use CIS. Another patient equally liked SPEAK and ACE preferring them both to CIS. A third patient chose SPEAK. The fourth member of the group preferred the ACE strategy. Our results show how valuable it is that we can choose from three different speech encoding strategies with the Nucleus 24 device.