Bilateral and Unilateral Cochlear Implant Users Compared on Speech Perception in Noise

In Brief Objective: Compare speech performance in noise with matched bilateral cochlear implant (CICI) and unilateral cochlear implant (CI only) users. Design: Thirty CICI and 30 CI-only subjects were tested on a battery of speech perception tests in noise that use an eight-loudspeaker array. Results: On average, CICI subject's performance with speech in noise was significantly better than the CI-only subjects. Conclusion: The CICI group showed significantly better performance on speech perception in noise compared with the CI-only subjects, supporting the hypothesis that CICI is more beneficial than CI only. Speech perception in noise was evaluated on 30 bilateral cochlear implant subjects (CICI) and 30 unilateral (CI-Only) cochlear implant subjects. CICI performance was significantly better on words presented in noise. The results showed that it is likely that some CICI subjects can make use of selecting between one of two ears with a more favorable signal-to-noise ratio which is not possible for listeners with only one implant.