Wednesday, February 5, 2025 2/5/2025

Cochlear implants and listening effort: the interaction of cognitive and sensory constraints

Award Number: R01DC016834
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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PROJECT SUMMARY Older adults are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, with hearing loss the third most prevalent chronic medical condition. Untreated, hearing loss can interfere with effective communication, quality of life, and potentially accelerate cognitive decline. Cochlear implants (CI) have seen increasing use for older adults, with one implant center reporting a nearly 500% increase over a recent ten-year period in the number of individuals aged 60 or older receiving CIs. The auditory input provided by a CI is sharply degraded with respect to that of a person with normal hearing or even with mild to moderate hearing loss, but patients can adapt well to this novel input- at least when measured by standard clinical tests of word identification (e.g., CNC words) or perception of simple sentences (e.g., AzBio sentences). However, clinicians are often puzzled by patients, especially older adults, who seem to do well on standard tests but report major difficulties in everyday speech interactions. This grant builds upon the hypothesis that the combined constraints of the sharply degraded signal provided by a CI and finite cognitive resources may lead to a “tipping point” when listeners are confronted with complex sentences and discourse arriving at normally rapid speech rates. Beyond this tipping point communication may become too difficult, even for CI recipients whose standard speech intelligibility scores are above average. This grant brings together a unique combination of three converging approaches: (1) We examine the ability of younger adult and older adult CI users to comprehend and remember the content of linguistically complex sentences and multi-sentence discourse, and probe potential effects on the cognitive mechanisms listeners use to process speech input, an underlying issue as yet unexplored in CI research; (2) For each experiment we will conduct a parallel study with normal-hearing younger and older adults using channel vocoded and unprocessed speech, with the former allowing a systematic determination of the interaction between signal degradation and the complexity of the speech materials on their recall, and the latter to illustrate a baseline of optimal performance on the same tasks for age-matched adults; (3) We will use modern pupillometry measures as an objective index of cognitive effort time-locked to the content of the speech input. The knowledge gained will test current models of resource allocation and listening effort as mechanisms underlying effects of cognitive load when younger and older adult CI users face the natural complexity of everyday sentences and discourse. Results of the studies will be valuable for counseling CI recipients and their families and will help develop more comprehensive evaluation batteries and rehabilitative strategies for the older adult CI recipient.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $625,173 )
2025	2025	NEW YORK UNIVERSITY	550 1ST AVE	NEW YORK	NY	10016	NEW YORK	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	6	1/8/2025	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$626,839
2025	2022	BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY	415 SOUTH ST	WALTHAM	MA	02453	MIDDLESEX	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	5	12/17/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$1,666
														Subtotal = $625,173

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $502,196 )
2022	2022	BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY	415 SOUTH ST	WALTHAM	MA	02453	MIDDLESEX	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	5	6/19/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$502,196
														Subtotal = $502,196

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $502,196 )
2021	2021	BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY	415 SOUTH ST	WALTHAM	MA	02453	MIDDLESEX	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	4	6/18/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$502,196
														Subtotal = $502,196

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $502,196 )
2020	2020	BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY	415 SOUTH ST	WALTHAM	MA	02453	MIDDLESEX	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	3	6/18/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$502,196
														Subtotal = $502,196

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $582,611 )
2019	2019	BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY	415 SOUTH ST	WALTHAM	MA	02453	MIDDLESEX	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	2	6/17/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$515,531
2019	2019	BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY	415 SOUTH ST	WALTHAM	MA	02453	MIDDLESEX	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	1	5/3/2019	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$67,080
														Subtotal = $582,611

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $519,550 )
2018	2018	BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY	415 SOUTH ST	WALTHAM	MA	02453	MIDDLESEX	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	1	6/26/2018	NEW	$519,550
														Subtotal = $519,550

Grand Total All Awards = $3,233,922

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Cochlear implants and listening effort: the interaction of cognitive and sensory constraints

Award Number: R01DC016834

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

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