AERODYNAMIC ASSESSMENT OF THE SPEECH OF ADULTS UNDERGOING MULTICHANNEL COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION

This investigation was designed to evaluate the aerodynamic characteri stics of the speech of adult multichannel cochlear implant (Nucleus, 2 1-channel) recipients. Five adults with an acquired profound sensorine ural hearing loss were tested before implantation, immediately followi ng implantation, and 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after implantation. A comm ercially available computerized pressure-flow instrumentation system w as employed to assess the respiratory, laryngeal, velopharyngeal, and oral articulatory subsystems of speech of the implantees. The results of the investigation indicated 1) a slight increase in airflow rate va lues for sustained vowel /a/ phonation after implantation, 2) a slight increase in duration of sustained vowel phonation from the preimplant period to the last postimplant period, 3) an increase in laryngeal ai rway resistance after implantation that resulted from a larger increas e in estimated transglottal pressure than in transglottal airflow, 4) maintenance of normal velopharyngeal closure in oral-nasal contrastive contexts, and 5) slight increases in oral orifice area for fricative syllable utterances following implantation. Individual strategies for coordinated control of the speech mechanism appear to be potent variab les to consider when assessing speech production.