Some benefits and limitations of binaural cochlear implants and our ability to measure them

Abstract

We review new recognition and localization skills in patients using one or two cochlear implant(s). We observed one unilateral patient who showed localization performance above chance. We also provide evidence for binaural processing in bilateral cochlear implant patients, even when tested with speech from the front without noise. We unsuccessfully attempted to find correlations between localization and squelch, between these variables and pre-implant threshold differences, or these variables and post-implant recognition differences. We strongly believe that new tests are needed to examine the potential benefit of two implants. We describe three tests that we use to show a binaural advantage: cued recognition, movement direction, and recognition with multiple jammers.