Speech perception ability of adults with multiple‐channel cochlear implants, using the spectral maxima sound processor Free

The spectral maxima sound processor (SMSP) was designed at the University of Melbourne for use with the 22‐electrode cochlear implant manufactured by Cochlear Pty. Ltd. The processor utilizes a bank of 16 bandpass filters that are assigned to 16 electrode pairs tonotopically. In each stimulation period (typically 4 ms) six electrode pairs are stimulated. The selection of electrodes and stimulation levels are determined by the six filters having the highest amplitude outputs. Speech perception results with a number of adult implantees were obtained and the SMSP's performance compared with that of commercially available speech processors designed for this implant, including the most recent MSP (multi‐spectral‐peak processor). These results show that, for the subjects investigated, the SMSP improved speech perception ability, in quiet and in noise. This was true both for vowels and for consonants. Speech tests used in this study included open‐set sentences, open‐set monosyllabic words and closed‐set vowel and consonant confusion tests. The tests were administered in the auditory‐alone condition.