Cochlear-implant listeners benefit from training with time-compressed speech, even at advanced ages.

Abstract

This study evaluated whether adaptive training with time-compressed speech produces an age-dependent improvement in speech recognition in 14 adult cochlear-implant users. The protocol consisted of a pretest, 5 h of training, and a posttest using time-compressed speech and an adaptive procedure. There were significant improvements in time-compressed speech recognition at the posttest session following training (>5% in the average time-compressed speech recognition threshold) but no effects of age. These results are promising for the use of adaptive training in aural rehabilitation strategies for cochlear-implant users across the adult lifespan and possibly using speech signals, such as time-compressed speech, to train temporal processing.