CEU Courses

This text course is a Q & A discussion of the research looking at the benefit of frequency lowering hearing aid technology and what clinical conclusions can be made based on the evidence.

This article is a highly technical discussion that compares and contrasts modern frequency lowering approaches for hearing aids and includes a generic protocol for determining the initial settings for fitting this technology.

This text course provides an overview of diagnosis and treatment of central auditory processing disorder, in an engaging Q & A format with leading expert Dr. Gail Chermak.

VA

This presentation will review current cochlear implant predictors and outcomes.

This presentation will review candidacy issues and pre- and post-implant performance for individuals who are cochlear implant recipients with asymmetrichearing loss.

This presentation will review outcomes in listeners who use hybrid cochlear implant(s).

Cochlear implant recipients are not ideally suited for conveying several key features of music, though interestingly, Cl users vary considerably in their music perception and enjoyment. This presentation will focus on those stimuli characteristics, device technology, and individual differences that help us understand variability in Cl user satisfaction with music listening.

There are now>350,000 cochlear implant (Cl) recipients worldwide. Bilateral implantation has become a standard treatment in many countries, in an attempt to provide patients with auditory cues needed to segregate speech from noise and localize sounds. Despite notable benefits when listening with bilateral vs. unilateral Cls, most patients continue to perform significantly worse than normal hearing {NH) listeners. Binaural functioning in NH depends on neural coding of interaural differences in time level. Although today's clinical processors are designed to maximize speech understanding, they do not encode binaural cues in a reliable and suitable manner. By using reverse engineering approaches, we work towards discovering how to preserve these cues in order to ultimately design binaural Cl processors. The roles of experience, age and auditory plasticity are all important considerations in this research. Studies in children also show what benefits can be leveraged with early bilateral stimulation and longitudinal experience. In addition, improvement in speech intelligibility does not capture all the added benefits that are experienced by patients, such as reduced cognitive load or listening effort. Our recent studies are aimed at gaining insight into this dimension of real-world listening that is poorly understood, using an eye tracking system to measure pupillary responses, which have been shown to be an index of listening effort.

This presentation will focus on the medical and surgical considerations for cochlear implantation. Topics will include the medical determination of candidacy and requirements for a successful surgical procedure.