Biomedical subjects

J Ronnberg

Publications and source records attributed to J Ronnberg.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Vibrotactile speech tracking support: cognitive prerequisites.

Fourteen postlingually hearing-impaired participants took part in an intervention study on the potential benefit of three types of tactile aids (i.e., the Tactilator, Minivib 3, and the Tactaid 7). Although training by means of computerized tracking had substantial effects on speech tracking rate, no differential effects of type of aid emerged. However, a cognitive test battery revealed that training efficacy is directly dependent on the cognitive prerequisites of the individual speechreader. The speed with which an individual can make phonological judgments (i.e., rhyme judgments) and visual word decoding from lipreading proved to be critical cognitive skills. We conclude that these skills must be further assessed and taken into account when rehabilitation/training programs are launched.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1998

Regional cerebral blood flow during signed and heard episodic and semantic memory tasks.

Ten deaf participants and 10 normal hearing participants performed 2 memory tasks during which their regional cerebral blood flow was measured with a high-resolution system. The deaf participants solved an episodic memory (i.e., recognition of words) and a semantic memory (i.e., classification of items into categories) task presented by means of sign language; the same material was presented to the hearing participants who heard the stimulus lists. The specific hypothesis that signed episodic recognition tasks would activate posterior, right-hemisphere cortical areas was supported. Expectedly, the remaining 3 memory activations were mainly located in the left hemisphere. Data from recent positron emission tomography studies suggest that one challenge for future research is to assess the relative localization for encoding and retrieval of signed episodes.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1996

Verbal information-processing capabilities and cochlear implants: implications for preoperative predictors of speech understanding.

In this study, we examined preoperative verbal cognitive capacity in 11 deafened adults who were cochlear implant candidates and reexamined level of speech understanding after 6-8 months' experience with the implant. Verbal cognitive performance in the implant group was compared in a group of normal hearing subjects and in nonimplanted group of deafened adults. The three groups performed on par with each other with an exception: The individuals in the cochlear implant group and the nonimplanted group of deafened adults performed significatly worse than those of normal hearing in tasks in which use of internal speech is a key feature (i.e., rhyme judgement and lexical decision tasks). Postoperative observations of the implanted individuals' level of speech understanding suggest that it is possible to predict the level of speech understanding by means of a properative cognitive assessment. The characteristics of three verbal cognitive abilities prove to be critical indicators of 6 - 8 months' postoperative outcome: internal speech functioning, speed of verval information processing, and working memory capacity - the first factor proved the most decisive. We discuss the results with respect to direct versus indirect predictors of outcomes from cochlear implant operations and the effect of auditory deprivation on deafened adults' capability to process auditory information.

Journal Article↗