Event-related neuronal responses to acoustic novelty in single-sided deaf cochlear implant users: Initial findings

Cochlear implants (CIs) restore hearing to deaf and severely hard of hearing individuals. They bypass a non-functional inner ear by direct electrical stimulation of auditory nerves (Zeng et al., 2011). Compared to normal acoustic hearing CI-transmitted sounds are degraded (Drennan and Rubinstein, 2008). This makes speech understanding difficult, particularly in background noise (Baskent et al., 2016; Wilson and Dorman, 2008). Speech intelligibility with the CI is typically assessed via word or sentences tests in quiet or noise (Hahlbrock, 1953; Haumann et al., 2010; Hey et al., 2014, 2016; Hochmair-Desoyer et al., 1997; Zeng and Fay, 2013).

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