Article
Neural signatures of auditory perception and attention in unilateral cochlear implant users
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Authors
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Hannah Marie Meineke
- University of Lübeck, Department of Psychology, Lübeck, Germany; University of Lübeck, Center of Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, Lübeck, Germany
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Malte Wöstmann
- University of Lübeck, Department of Psychology, Lübeck, Germany; University of Lübeck, Center of Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, Lübeck, Germany
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Rainer Schönweiler
- University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Phoniatrics and Paediatric Audiology, Lübeck, Germany
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Daniela Hollfelder
- University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Lübeck, Germany
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Karl-Ludwig Bruchhage
- University Hospital of Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Lübeck, Germany
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Jonas Obleser
- University of Lübeck, Department of Psychology, Lübeck, Germany; University of Lübeck, Center of Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, Lübeck, Germany
| Published: | March 5, 2024 |
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Outline
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Research question: In daily life, the human auditory system needs to separate relevant input from noise, a process depending on selective attention. Hearing loss aggravates the separation of sound sources but profound hearing loss and deafness can be treated with a Cochlear Implant (CI). Here, we ask whether adaptation to electrical hearing with a CI is accompanied by modulation of the brain’s perceptual and attentional processing of acoustic input?
Methods: Spatial and temporal listening tests were conducted with N=18 unilaterally implanted CI users with normal or aided contralateral hearing in the first and the seventh month after CI activation. Next to clinical and subjective measures of speech comprehension (FMST and SSQ short version), electroencephalography (EEG) recordings during a passive listening task with amplitude-modulated (AM) sounds and a spatial listening task with competing talkers were collected.
Results: Behavioural indices of speech reception indicate two types of benefits. First, clinical speech reception scores in quiet improved during the six-months period. Second, benefits in spatial listening to speech from different locations under concurrent distraction occurred when the CI was switched on versus off. In the EEG, after six month of CI use, the auditory phase-locking decreased in response to 4-Hz AM sounds but tended to increase for 40-Hz AM sounds, suggesting improved auditory temporal processing. Hemispherically lateralized power of neural alpha oscillations (~10 Hz) as a neural signature of auditory spatial attention was stable over the six months. However, the hemisphere contralateral to the non-implanted ear exhibited stronger attention-driven alpha power modulation.
Conclusion: In sum, the results suggest specific adaptation of bottom-up perceptual processes, while effects of top-down attention initially adjust to bimodal input but remain relatively stable during the adaptation to listening with a unilateral CI. These results will help to derive a mechanistic account of auditory perceptual and attentional adaptation to listening with a CI.
