Psycho-Acoustic Factor in Cochlear Implant Patients: Measuring the Abilities of Discriminating the Loudness, Frequencies, and Interval Time between Pulses by Pure Tone Audiometry

Twelve cochlear implant patients (34-77 years old) were examined by pure tone audiometer in terms of their abilities of discriminating the loudness, frequencies, and interval time between pulses and identifying the speech sounds of vowels and consonants. The results indicated that speech perception would be affected by the psychoacoustic factors. It was found that their abilities deteriorated in proportion to the length of auditory deprivation, and the patients who had auditory deprivation for more than 30 years showed the lowest discrimination abilities. Therefore, cochlear implant should be recommended soon after the onset of auditory deprivation because of the plasticity of brain functions.