Soheila Nikakhlagh, Nader Saki‎‏, ‏ Atefeh Khaleghi, Peyman Zamani, Arash Bayat, Majid Karimi, Maryam Dastoorpoor

Abstract

Background and Objective: Any change in the auditory system can affect the proper use of ‎speech and audio productions structures.  The reason of this negative effect is the lack of ‎auditory feedback. Voice changes caused by hearing impairment are connected to breathing, ‎voice phonation and speech production. The aim of this study was comparing One of the voice ‎parameters (F0) based on demographic features of post lingual people after cochlear ‎implantation.‎ Methods: The study included 38 (19 male, 19 female) post-lingual hearing-impaired adults who ‎underwent cochlear implantation. The required data are based on information that was provided ‎in the cochlear implant center by patient's file, these data includes demographic information ‎and audiogram that’s collected after cochlear implant. ‎Results: According to the results, we found the most important effected was usage time of ‎cochlear implant on the pronunciation of vowel /a/. It can be said that the implant type of the ‎cochlear implant and the ear that’s taking prosthesis has no significant impact on the ‎performance of the pronunciation of this vowel. Also, we measured the effective factors ‎associated with deafness (i.e. type of hearing loss, duration of deafness and aetiology of ‎deafness) in the participants. These factors cause no significant difference in pronunciation ‎performance of this vowel. Also, the main effect and interaction of these factors did not ‎indicate a significant difference on result of the F0 of this vowel (F<0.842, P=0.486, η2 <0.096, ‎Observed power<0.206).‎ Conclusion: On comparing the variation of results, the most important effect is usage time of ‎cochlear implant on the pronunciation of vowel /a/ and other factors such as implant type and ‎implant side have no significant relationship with this vowel. On the other hand, type of hearing ‎loss, duration of deafness and aetiology of deafness have no significant relationship with vowel ‎‎/a/‎.