Clinical assessment of spectral modulation detection for adult cochlear implant recipients: A non-language based measure of performance outcomes

Abstract Objective: Spectral modulation detection (SMD) provides a psychoacoustic estimate of spectral resolution. The SMD threshold for an implanted ear is highly correlated with speech understanding and is thus a non-linguistic, psychoacoustic index of speech understanding. This measure, however, is time and equipment intensive and thus not practical for clinical use. Thus the purpose of the current study was to investigate the efficacy of a quick SMD task with the following three study aims: (1) to investigate the correlation between the long psychoacoustic, and quick SMD tasks, (2) to determine the test/retest variability of the quick SMD task, and (3) to evaluate the relationship between the quick SMD task and speech understanding. Design: This study included a within-subjects, repeated-measures design. Study sample: Seventy-six adult cochlear implant recipients participated. Results: The results were as follows: (1) there was a significant correlation between the long psychoacoustic, and quick SMD tasks, (2) the test-retest variability of the quick SMD task was highly significant and, (3) there was a significant positive correlation between the quick SMD task and monosyllabic word recognition. Conclusions: The results of this study represent the direct clinical translation of a research-proven task of SMD into a quick, clinically feasible format.