Processing of /i/ and /u/ in Italian cochlear-implant children: a behavioral and neurophysiologic study

Cochlear implants partially restore auditory sensation in individuals affected by severe to profound hearing loss. We investigated vowel detection, identification, and discrimination in a group of congenitally-deafened, unilaterally-implanted, Italian children and in a group of age-matched controls, by combining behavioral and neurophysiologic measures. Comparable vowel identification and discrimination performance emerged for cochlear-implant and normalhearing children at the behavioral level. At the neurophysiologic level, on the other hand, cochlear-implant children appeared to lag behind their age-matched normalhearing peers for vowel detection and identification, but not for vowel discrimination. Length of cochlear implant use significantly affected vowel processing at the neurophysiologic level, although not systematically.