Comparison of Speech Discrimination Scores between SPEAK and MPEAK Speech-Processing Strategies

Abstract

Materials and Methods In order to compare speech discrimination abilities of the users of the two most recent speech-processing strategies of Nucleus 22 Cochlear Implant System, 13 postlingually deafened adults who have been using multipeak (MPEAK) strategy for between 6 months and 5 years borrowed Spectra 22 mapped with spectral peak (SPEAK) strategy for 1 month. The sentence and phoneme discrimination scores were then obtained using both SPEAK and MPEAK strategies under the conditions of both hearing only and of hearing and lip-reading combined. The results were analyzed with the subjects being divided into four groups according to duration of hearing loss and number of active electrodes (table 1). Results The scores were best in the order of the groups with: (1) duration of hearing loss of less than 10 years and with more than 10 electrodes; (2) duration of hearing loss of less than 10 years and with less than 9 electrodes; (3) duration of hearing loss of more than 11 years and with more than 10 electrodes, and (4) duration of hearing loss of more than 11 years and with less than 9 electrodes in both under the condition of hearing only (table 2), and that of hearing and lip-reading combined (table 3). The better the score, the greater the difference scores between MPEAK and SPEAK strategies. The scores obtained with SPEAK were greater than those with MPEAK in the best two groups.