Development of an objective measure of cochlear implant outcome
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of an objective measure of paediatric cochlear implant outcome using functional near infrared spectroscopy
IRAS ID
228897
Contact name
Douglas Hartley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
The purpose of this research is to develop a tool which can objectively measure how well a profoundly deaf child is hearing with their cochlear implants (CIs).
In the UK, children are often fitted with their CIs during their first year of life since earlier implantation is strongly related to better outcome success. However, although speech perception and language skills improve significantly after cochlear implantation, outcomes still vary and some children’s speech perception skills lag behind considerably. At present, clinicians lack the tools required to identify infants who are struggling to hear with their CIs at an early stage. This is because current clinical practice is heavily reliant upon subjective behavioural speech perception testing but these measures cannot be reliably performed until children reach pre-school age, resulting in an intractable delay of a number of years between implantation and performing outcomes assessments. Consequently, years may pass before parents and clinicians become aware of poor speech and language skills.
Therefore, there is a need for an objective measure of speech perception in young CI recipients. Such a tool could be used to direct rehabilitation strategies based on each individual’s monitored progress following implantation, enabling a more efficient use of existing limited and expensive NHS rehabilitation resources as well as a reduction in aftercare costs for individuals performing well with their CIs. Furthermore, there is potential to use the technique pre-operatively as a prognostic tool, allowing clinicians to infer outcomes prior to implantation and ensure that parents have realistic expectations regarding their child’s CI performance.
We aim to evaluate whether individual brain responses to speech are related to good and poorer speech perception abilities. We will use an optical neuroimaging technique called functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) which, unlike conventional imaging techniques, is fully CI-compatible, child-friendly and non-invasive.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0343
Date of REC Opinion
28 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion