Phonological representations in postlingual deaf subjects using a multichannel cochlear implant

Our research is a first attempt to study phonological representations in po stlingually deaf subjects using a multichannel cochlear implant. Before dea fness, these subjects had developed normal language. The present study inve stigated how phonological representations are assessed through cochlear imp lant inputs by comparing priming within the auditory modality, and priming in a visual-auditory, cross-modal, condition. Two postlingually deafened ad ults participated in two lexical decision experiments where word primes wer e phonologically paired with a word target (e.g. vedette/dette), or a pseud oword target (e.g. banane/nane). The same word primes were also paired with non phonologically related target words (e.g. vedette/chat) and pseudoword s (e.g. banane/repe). In addition, the same targets were used in phonologic ally-related pairs and in phonologically-unrelated ones. Results showed dif ferent priming effects for each patient. In one patient, priming was observ ed for word targets in the unimodal condition only. In the other patient, p riming was observed for word targets and interference was observed for pseu doword targets in the cross-modal condition, whereas no effect was observed in the unimodal condition. In addition, this last patient made more errors for pseudowords than for words in the cross-modal condition. These results were interpreted as suggesting that lexical phonological representations p articipated to priming effects. Moreover, our results suggest that phonolog ical word forms can be activated by visual primes via cochlear implants. (C ) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.