An analysis of the impact of auditory-nerve adaptation on behavioral measures of temporal integration in cochlear implant recipients.

The objective of this study was to determine the impact that auditory-nerve adaptation has on behavioral measures of temporal integration in Nucleus 24 cochlear implant recipients. It was expected that, because the auditory nerve serves as the input to central temporal integrator, a large degree of auditory-nerve adaptation would reduce the amount of temporal integration. Neural adaptation was measured by tracking amplitude changes of the electrically evoked compound action potential (ECAP) in response to 1000-pps biphasic pulse trains of varying durations. Temporal integration was measured at both suprathreshold and threshold levels by an adaptive procedure. Although varying degrees of neural adaptation and temporal integration were observed across individuals, results of this investigation revealed no correlation between the degree of neural adaptation and psychophysical measures of temporal integration.