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27. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Audiologie
und Arbeitstagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutschsprachiger Audiologen, Neurootologen und Otologen

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Audiologie e. V. und ADANO

19. - 21.03.2025, Göttingen

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Electrophysiological correlates of monaural and binaural speech processing in single sided deafness patients supplied with a cochlear implant compared to normal-hearing subjects

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  • presenting/speaker Sonja Rossi - Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, ICONE – Innsbruck Cognitive Neuroscience, Univ.-Klinik für Hör-, Stimm- und Sprachstörungen, Innsbruck, Österreich
  • Josef Seebacher - Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, ICONE – Innsbruck Cognitive Neuroscience, Univ.-Klinik für Hör-, Stimm- und Sprachstörungen, Innsbruck, Österreich
  • Annika Rackl - Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, ICONE – Innsbruck Cognitive Neuroscience, Univ.-Klinik für Hör-, Stimm- und Sprachstörungen, Innsbruck, Österreich
  • Isabella Thurner - Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, ICONE – Innsbruck Cognitive Neuroscience, Univ.-Klinik für Hör-, Stimm- und Sprachstörungen, Innsbruck, Österreich
  • Philipp Zelger - Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, ICONE – Innsbruck Cognitive Neuroscience, Univ.-Klinik für Hör-, Stimm- und Sprachstörungen, Innsbruck, Österreich
  • Markus Rungger - Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, Univ.-Klinik für Hör-, Stimm- und Sprachstörungen, Innsbruck, Österreich
  • Patrick Zorowka - Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, Univ.-Klinik für Hör-, Stimm- und Sprachstörungen, Innsbruck, Österreich
  • Simone Graf - Medizinische Universität Innsbruck, Univ.-Klinik für Hör-, Stimm- und Sprachstörungen, Innsbruck, Österreich
  • Anja Hahne - Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus, HNO-Klinik & Sächsisches Cochlear Implant Center, Dresden, Deutschland

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Audiologie e. V. und ADANO. 27. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Audiologie und Arbeitstagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutschsprachiger Audiologen, Neurootologen und Otologen. Göttingen, 19.-21.03.2025. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2025. Doc143

doi: 10.3205/25dga143, urn:nbn:de:0183-25dga1437

Published: March 18, 2025

© 2025 Rossi et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

Text

Research aims: Normal-hearing people do not show any difficulties in extracting fine-grained information from the acoustic signal of each ear in order to interpret the meaning of speech and sounds. This process is undertaken primarily from the left hemisphere in the brain in right-handed people. Acoustic signals presented to the right ear are preferentially processed which is referred to as „Right-Ear-Advantage". Hearing impaired patients, especially those with a single sided deafness (SSD) have to understand speech with only one ear. This can be supported by hearing aids such as cochlear implants. With the present study we aim at investigating neural mechanisms in the brain during monaural and binaural presentation of speech in SSD patients supplied with a cochlear implant in order to gain more detailed insights into brain reorganization to strengthen speech intelligibility.

Design and methods: Cochlear-implant patients with unilateral hearing impairment at the right ear and age-matched normal-hearing subjects were presented with semantically correct and incorrect sentences via inset headphones. Sentences were presented either monaurally to the left or right ear or binaurally to both ears simultaneously. Brain activity was assessed via electroencephalography (EEG) capable to identify fast dynamic changes in the range of milliseconds. This excellent temporal resolution allows to investigate the N400 component reliably reflecting semantic processes and its degree of difficulty in accessing speech meaning.

Results and discussion Preliminary results show in normal-hearing subjects an increased N400 amplitude for semantically incorrect compared to correct sentences. This effect is in line with previous studies evidencing the more challenging access to the mental lexicon for incorrect sentences. This effect was present irrespective of whether sentences were presented monaurally or binaurally. Cochlear-implant patients show a similar pattern of results however predominantly for the binaural presentation. These findings emphasize the importance of supplying the hearing impaired ear with a cochlear implant in order to allow similar processing mechanisms as in normal-hearing subjects during binaural presentation. However, the brain of SSD patients seems to adopt different reorganization mechanisms during monaural hearing in order to compensate for speech intelligibility.