Welcome!

The Sladen Cochlear Implant Lab is under the direction of Dr. Doug Sladen, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Western Washington University. The lab is engaged in research related to cochlear implant outcomes among adults and children. This line of research includes studies of implant performance under various experimental conditions. Most recently the lab has been examining speech understanding in noise and localization outcomes among adults who are bimodal listeners or have single-sided deafness (SSD) and use a cochlear implant. The over arching goal of this research is to improve our understanding of cochlear implants and how they may enhance speech understanding, localization, and overall quality of life.

Cochlear Implant Current Research

Assessment of Speech in Noise and Localization in a Virtual Reality Test Environment: Cochlear Implant Listeners with Single Sided Deafness. Single-sided deafness (SSD) is a new indication for cochlear implantation. In this study we assess speech understanding in noise and localization in a real-world test environment using virtual reality. The aim of this study is to observe how benefit varies across speaker locations.

Frequency Importance Functions of Adult Cochlear Implant Listeners. Frequency importance functions reflect the importance of frequency bands to overall speech understanding. Participants complete two tasks; conventional speech perception using words and sentences, and a computer.