Acoustic Temporal Modulation Detection in Normal-Hearing and Cochlear Implanted Listeners: Effects of Hearing Mechanism and Development

Temporal modulation detection ability matures over many years after birth and may be particularly sensitive to experience during this period. Profound hearing loss during early childhood might result in greater perceptual deficits than a similar loss beginning in adulthood. We tested this idea by measuring performance in temporal modulation detection in profoundly deaf children and adults fitted with cochlear implants (CIs). At least two independent variables could constrain temporal modulation detection performance in children with CIs: altered encoding of modulation information due to the CI-auditory nerve interface, and atypical development of central processing of sound information provided by CIs. The effect of altered encoding was investigated by testing subjects with one of two different hearing mechanisms (normal hearing vs. CI) and the effect of atypical development was studied by testing two different age groups. All subjects were tested for their ability to detect acoustic temporal modulations of sound amplitude. A comparison of the slope, or cutoff frequency, of the temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) among the four subject groups revealed that temporal resolution was mainly constrained by hearing mechanism: normal-hearing listeners could detect smaller amplitude modulations at high modulation frequencies than CI users. In contrast, a comparison of the height of the TMTFs revealed a significant interaction between hearing mechanism and age group on overall sensitivity to temporal modulation: sensitivity was significantly poorer in children with CIs, relative to the other three groups. Results suggest that there is an age-specific vulnerability of intensity discrimination or non-sensory factors, which subsequently affects sensitivity to temporal modulation in prelingually deaf children who use CIs.