Clinical evaluation of the Nucleus 6 cochlear implant system: performance improvements with SmartSound iQ.

AbstractObjective: This paper provides a detailed description of the Nucleus 6 system, and clinically evaluates user performance compared to the previous Nucleus 5 system in cochlear implant recipients. Additionally, it clinically evaluates a range of Nucleus 6 and Nucleus 5 programs to determine the performance benefits provided by new input processing technologies available in SmartSound iQ. Design: Speech understanding tests were used to clinically validate the default Nucleus 6 program, by comparing performance outcomes against up to five custom Nucleus 5 or Nucleus 6 programs in a range of listening environments. Clinical comparisons between programs were conducted across the following listening environments; quiet, speech weighted noise (co-located and spatially separated noise), and 4-talker babble (co-located and spatially separated noise). Study sample: Twenty-one adult cochlear implant recipients participated. Results: Significant speech understanding benefits were found with the default Nucleus...