The roles of selective attention, working memory, and age in bilateral speech interference for single-sided deafness cochlear-implant users
Cochlear implants (CIs) for single-sided deafness (SSD) can partially restore the ability to use binaural interactions to improve masked speech intelligibility. When target and masking speech are presented to the acoustic-hearing (AH) ear, presenting a copy of the masker to the CI ear facilitates spatial release from masking (SRM) and improves speech perception. The reverse is not true, however; presenting a copy of the masker to the AH ear can impede CI-ear speech perception. This “bilateral speech interference” varies greatly across listeners and understanding the source of this variability is crucial to maximizing SRM. Bilateral speech interference was assessed in 19 SSD-CI listeners (ages 20–77 years) using the coordinate response measure corpus. Participants also completed two non-auditory selective-attention tasks (Stroop, Flanker) and a working memory task (Reading Span). Bilateral speech interference was significantly associated with older age and poorer selective attention, while better working memory was significantly associated with improved performance overall. The role of domain-general selective attention points to possible clinical applications including selective-attention training or pre-operative screening for risk of interference. [The views expressed in this abstract are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Department of War or U.S. Government.]