Speech Intelligibility in Noise With a Pinna Effect Imitating Cochlear Implant Processor

Objective: To evaluate the speech intelligibility in noise with a new cochlear implant (CI) processor that uses a pinna effect imitating directional microphone system. Study Design: Prospective experimental study. Setting: Tertiary referral center. Patients: Ten experienced, unilateral CI recipients with bilateral severe-to-profound hearing loss. Intervention: All participants performed speech in noise tests with the Opus 2 processor (omnidirectional microphone mode only) and the newer Sonnet processor (omnidirectional and directional microphone mode). Main Outcome Measure: The speech reception threshold (SRT) in noise was measured in four spatial settings. The test sentences were always presented from the front. The noise was arriving either from the front (S0N0), the ipsilateral side of the CI (S0NIL), the contralateral side of the CI (S0NCL), or the back (S0N180). Results: The directional mode improved the SRTs by 3.6 dB (p 

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