Dorman, M.
Both children born deaf, and adults who have lost all hearing, can achieve very high levels of speech understanding when fit with a cochlear implant. This is a non-trivial accomplishment given that the signal, provided by the implant’s signal processing and modified by the patient’s not-normal peripheral and central neurophysiology, is a significantly impoverished version of the speech signal. In this talk I will review (i) the nature of the signal provided to adults and children, (ii) the levels of performance achieved with the signal, (iii) the very large benefit for speech perception in noise afforded when a very low-frequency signal from the ‘other’ ear is added to the signal provided by the implant, (iv) the stress-based mechanism that might underlie the benefit when low-frequency acoustic stimulation is added to electric stimulation and (v) studies of brain imaging that provide insights into the mechanisms that could underlie neuroplasticity in children and adults.