Frequency Overlap Between Electric and Acoustic Stimulation and Speech-Perception Benefit in Patients with Combined Electric and Acoustic Stimulation

Abstract

Reducing the overlap in frequency representation between acoustic and electric stimulation does not increase speech understanding scores for patients who have residual hearing in the ear contralateral to the implant. We find that acoustic information <250 Hz significantly improves performance for patients who combine electric and acoustic stimulation and accounts for the majority of the speech-perception benefit when acoustic stimulation is combined with electric stimulation.