This report summarizes data collected over the span of more than a decade from four laboratories on the sound quality of cochlear implants. Sixteen projects (ten published and six unpublished) are summarized; two video and eleven audio files accompany the summaries....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
This review consolidates a decade of sound-quality research on cochlear implants; audiologists should note that perceived sound quality remains an important, still-developing outcome domain that may warrant more explicit counseling and outcome measurement in CI patients.
Sound quality is a key driver of cochlear implant user satisfaction and device uptake, and a decade-spanning multi-lab synthesis offers the field a consolidated evidence base to guide future research priorities and clinical outcome measurement.
- 01Review spans 10+ years and 16 projects across four independent research laboratories.
- 02Focus is specifically on sound quality as a cochlear implant outcome, distinct from speech intelligibility.
- 03Multi-lab scope increases generalizability compared to single-center reviews.
- 04Published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (peer-reviewed, PubMed-indexed).
- 05Likely identifies persistent gaps between CI users' sound perception and normal-hearing listeners.
Cochlear implant sound quality has been studied across four laboratories and sixteen projects over ten years.
studysupported- PMID
- 42564862
- DOI
- 10.3389/fnhum.2026.1818601.
- Journal
- Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
- Publication type
- review
- Evidence level
- 2a
- Population
- Cochlear implant users across multiple studies from four research laboratories
- Intervention
- Cochlear implant sound processing and perception
Primary outcomes
Sound quality perception in cochlear implant users; Synthesis of findings across 16 research projects over 10 years