Cochlear Implants
by Cochlear Guest Author

Bimodal benefits: help your patients hear their best in both ears

November 25, 2019
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By Natasha McDougald, Product Manager – Bimodal and Hybrid Hearing

A recent US Multicenter Study demonstrated the hearing performance and quality of life benefits with respect to a bimodal solution.  The study’s implications show that a cochlear implant and hearing aid could work together to give your patients a more natural hearing experience and should be considered within your clinic.

US Multicenter Study Results1

Results from the recent study demonstrated that speech perception significantly improved in both quiet and noise six months after activation in the bimodal condition, including on the telephone.1,2 Additionally, patients reported dramatic changes in their satisfaction with their hearing performance, with 9% reporting satisfaction with their bilateral hearing aid hearing performance, changing to 95% reporting satisfaction with their hearing performance using their bimodal solution.1

Bimodal Benefits

Benefits of a bimodal hearing system include:

  • Greater clarity and improved speech understanding, especially in noise3,4,5,6,7
  • Better determination of where sounds are coming from: localization3
  • Better sound appreciation so your patients can enjoy their favorite music6

The Cochlear™ Nucleus® Implant Systems work with any hearing aid to deliver these life-changing benefits of bimodal hearing. However, the most advanced smart bimodal hearing solution is the result of the partnership between Cochlear and ReSound to enable bimodal users to connect to the people they love and the world around them.

Expanded Connectivity

For the first time, if your patients have a Nucleus® 7 Sound Processor and a compatible ReSound hearing aid, they can stream sound directly to both ears at once from a compatible Apple® or Android™ device.*

With this unique smart bimodal hearing solution, Nucleus 7 recipients using a compatible smartphone can:

  • Connect with others on the phone
  • Rediscover the joy of music
  • Easily control their device settings
  • Use the Nucleus Smart App to find a lost sound processor functionality

To learn more about bimodal benefits please visit our website.

References:

  1. Clinical Evaluation of the Cochlear Nucleus CI532 Cochlear Implants in Adults Investigator Meeting. 2019 Apr.
  2. Wolfe J, Morais M, Schafer Erin. Speech recognition of bimodal cochlear implant recipients using a wireless audio streaming accessory for the telephone. Otol Neurotol. 2016 Feb;37(2):e20-5.
  3. Dorman MF, Gifford RH, Spahr AJ, McKarns SA. The benefits of combining acoustic and electric stimulation for the recognition of speech, voice and melodies. Audiology and Neurotology. 2008;13(2):105-12
  4. Potts LG, Skinner MW, Litovsky RA, Strube MJ, Kuk F. Recognition and localization of speech by adult cochlear implant recipients wearing a digital hearing aid in the nonimplanted ear (bimodal hearing). Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 2009 Jun 1;20(6):353-73.
  5. Gottermeier L, De Filippo C, Clark C. Trials of a Contralateral Hearing Aid After Long-Term Unilateral Cochlear Implant Use in Early-Onset Deafness. American journal of audiology. 2016 Jun 1;25(2):85-99.
  6. Sucher CM, McDermott HJ. Bimodal stimulation: benefits for music perception and sound quality. Cochlear Implants International. 2009 Jan 1;10(S1):96-9.
  7. Gifford RH, Dorman MF, McKarns SA, Spahr AJ. Combined electric and contralateral acoustic hearing: Word and sentence recognition with bimodal hearing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 2007 Aug 1;50(4):835-43.

* The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is compatible with iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone SE, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPad Pro (12.9-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 4, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 2, iPad mini, iPad (4th generation) and iPod touch (6th generation) using iOS 10.0 or later. The Nucleus Smart App is compatible with iPhone 5 (or later) and iPod 6th generation devices (or later) running iOS 10.0 or later. Apple, the Apple logo, FaceTime, Made for iPad logo, Made for iPhone logo, Made for iPod logo, iPhone, iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad mini, iPad and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Information accurate as of July 2017.

**With compatible ReSound hearing aids. A list of compatible hearing aids is available online at: www.Cochlear.com/US/Nucleus7Compatibility.

The Cochlear Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Apple, the Apple logo, FaceTime, Made for iPad logo, Made for iPhone logo, Made for iPod logo, iPhone, iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad mini, iPad and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Android and Google Play are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

The Cochlear Nucleus Smart App is available on App Store and Google Play. For complete smartphone compatibility information, please visit www.cochlear.com/compatibility.

Author

Cochlear Guest Author

In an effort to keep our content fresh and reflective of a diverse industry, Cochlear Americas features a mix of employees and professional partners to contribute to Cochlear ProNews as Guest Authors.

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main playing guitar to woman

Journal Club: Musical training improves the ability to understand speech-in-noise in older adults

October 30, 2019
Research updates

By Justin Piraino, Au.D, Sr. Manager Data Strategy and Analytics, Cochlear Americas

In today’s busy clinical environment, clinicians who value research-based practice often struggle to keep up with current literature.  To help, we’re excited to offer a new ProNews Blog monthly feature – Journal Club!  Each month, rotating guest authors will present a current journal article summary.

This month’s Journal Club explores a recent Canadian study published in the Neurobiology of Aging, Musical training improves the ability to understand speech-in-noise in older adults.As an audiologist and individual with hearing loss (hearing aid and cochlear implant user), any way to improve the ability to hear in noise for patients or myself is certainly worth my attention.  This research can encourage patients who aren’t feeling successful with their hearing loss treatment to engage in rehabilitation exercises.

What did the study investigate?

This study looked at the causal impact of music lessons on older adults. The researchers were interested to determine whether the causal relationship between short-term musical training and performance on auditory test improved hearing and therefore could be suggested to improve hearing in non-musicians.

Why is this important? 

These findings support the idea that musical training provides a causal benefit to hearing abilities. Importantly, these findings suggest that musical training could be used as a foundation to develop auditory rehabilitation programs for older adults.

How did they do it?

Below summarizes the key elements of study design and demographics:

  • A three-arm, single-blind longitudinal training study with random assignment
  • 34 individuals aged between 55 and 75
  • Participants were randomized into three groups using a stratified covariate-adaptive procedure. The groups include:
    • Piano training group (Music)
    • Video game training group (Video)
    • No-contact control group (No-contact)
  • Participants took part in three testing sessions:
    • The pre-training session (Pre) took place before the intervention, the mid-training session (Mid) took place three months after the start of the intervention and the post-training session (Post) took place six months after the onset of the intervention. During the Pre, Mid and Post sessions, participants completed a series of auditory and cognitive assessments.

Results

Based on the study, six months of self-directed music lessons improved the ability to understand speech in background noise in older adults.

This improvement was related to an increased positivity over frontal-left electrodes from 200 to 1000 ms after the onset of a word. These results suggest that musical training can be used to improve the ability to understand speech-in-noise in older adults by improving how older adults process speech and deploy their attentional resources to speech stimuli.

Discussion

The most critical finding from this study is that music lessons improved the ability to understand speech in noise for older adults.

First, it demonstrates that musical training may have a causal role in improving hearing abilities in older adults. This provides support for previous cross-sectional work demonstrating that older musicians have an advantage in understanding speech in noise compared with older non-musicians1.

Second, it highlights that the brain remains plastic in older adults and is susceptible to modification based on one’s life experiences. In the current context, this is critical as hearing difficulties in older adults are nearly universal2, and one of the most commonly reported hearing difficulties is understanding speech in noisy environments.

Accordingly, the results of this study demonstrate that music-based auditory rehabilitation is likely to be successful in older adults in improving their hearing abilities.

Learn more about musical rehabilitation implications by accessing the publication here and stay tuned for next month’s edition of Journal Club!

References

  1. Parbery-Clark, A., Anderson, S., Hittner, E., Kraus, N., 2012. Musical experience offsets age-related delays in neural timing. Neurobiol. Aging 33, 1483.e1-4.
  2. Gates, G.A., Mills, J.H., 2005. Presbycusis. Lancet 366, 1111e1120.

*All figures and tables are from the reviewed article.

cochlear profile plus

NEW Cochlear™ Nucleus® Profile™ Plus Series Cochlear Implant: How it Works

August 7, 2019

Nucleus System

You may have heard about our new Nucleus® Profile™ Plus Series Cochlear Implant’s thin design, unrivaled reliability and easier access to MRI¹…but let’s get technical!

How does the Profile Plus Implant’s design work?

Based upon the design of our Profile Series, the Profile Plus offers a range of features that may be beneficial to your patients.

  • Slim and smooth external geometry

The Profile Plus maintains the Profile Series’ slim design that follows the natural curvature of the head, which may result in less surgery time and an improved aesthetic outcome.

Its smooth external geometry minimizes biofilm formation.² These biofilm resistance properties  are the same as found on the Profile Series.

  • Diametric magnet

diametric magnetThe implant’s diametrically polarized magnet rotates and aligns with the magnetic field of the MRI machine, reducing the torque experienced by the implant, which contrasts axial magnets.

How can I identify the Profile Plus compared to other implants?

Compared to other products in the Profile Series, the Profile Plus includes a different magnet cassette shape. Please refer to the MRI Guidelines for further direction.¹

How will my patients benefit from the Profile Plus?

  • Easier access to MRI

With the Profile Plus MRI at 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla is possible without magnet removal or head wrap, giving recipients easier access to MRI scans.¹

  • Easy-to-remove magnet cassette

If magnet removal is necessary to prevent distortion to a patient’s MRI, the Profile Plus continues Cochlear’s longstanding history of magnet removal. While magnet removal is not needed for most scans, Profile Plus is designed to provide options for personalized healthcare.

Although it’s easy to remove, the magnet will not loosen or dislodge through normal use.

Tricks of the trade:

  • Magnet is easy to access without lifting the coil or excessive implant handling
  • No proprietary tools are needed – magnet removal can be completed using standard forceps
  • Removal requires only a small incision, which may reduce the risk of pain and infection
  • Compatibility

Profile PlusThe Profile Plus continues to offer patients choice for comfort and wear-ability with compatibility to both the Nucleus 7 and Kanso® sound processors.

Note that because the magnet design is different to the one included in previous Cochlear Implant models (diametric vs. axial), the sound processor requires the appropriate compatible magnet. For daily use, a magnet designated with an (I) should be used for Profile Plus recipients.

Profile Plus is available in the following electrode array configurations: Slim Modiolar (CI632), Slim Straight (CI622) and Contour Advance (CI612).

To learn more about new Nucleus Profile Plus Implant, check out our press release and webinar.

References

  1. MRI Guidelines D774756.
  2. Data on file: Cochlear™ Nucleus® Profile™ Plus (CI600) Series Implant FAQ
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