Cochlear implants (CIs) allow hearing-impaired subjects to regain access to speech. However, the individual outcome variability remains high and unexplained. One contributing factor to the CI performance could be related to higher cognitive functions, which are not as well studied as in normal hearing (NH) populations....
Alpha oscillatory activity differences between cochlear implant users and normal-hearing listeners offer a potential biomarker for attention-related outcome variability, but this is preliminary neurophysiological research; no change to CI fitting or rehabilitation practice is warranted yet.
Identifying neural markers of attentional processing in cochlear implant users could eventually guide personalised rehabilitation strategies and help explain the wide variability in real-world speech understanding outcomes.
- 01Alpha brain oscillations differ between cochlear implant users and normal-hearing listeners during focused attention tasks.