# Social Networks for Optimizing Communication Ability in Adult Cochlear Implant Users

> **NIH NIH R01** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2024 · $714,791

## Abstract

Project Summary:
One in three adults over the age of 65 years has hearing loss, which has significant negative communicative,
cognitive, and social consequences. Although cochlear implants (Cls) restore access to sound, enormous
individual differences in effective speech communication - a hearing health behavior typically assessed clinically
with measures of speech recognition and hearing-related quality of life (HR-Qol) - are observed in adult Cl
users. Further, older adults are at greater risk for poor communication outcomes. Our long-term goal is to better
understand social networks and speech communication in new adult Cl users following rapid restoration of
hearing through Cls, and the social, cognitive, and linguistic processes that support effective speech
communication, in order to better understand underlying mechanisms and to guide clinical interventions. New
adult Cl users improve their communication ability largely through everyday interactions and relationships with
communication partners within their social networks. We propose that social networks represent important and
potentially malleable factors that contribute to the communication ability of adult Cl users. Broadly, adult Cl users
present a unique opportunity to study social parameters following rapid restoration of hearing. However, we do
not have a good understanding of how Cl use impacts social networks, both in terms of social network structure
and the interpersonal processes that occur within them, as well as how these social factors relate to
communication ability. Therefore, the objectives of the proposed research are to characterize the effects of Cl
use on social network structure and interpersonal processes in middle-aged and older adult Cl users following
implantation, and to assess in what ways and why individual differences in social networks relate to
communication outcomes. Our central hypothesis is that Cl use impacts both social network structure and
interpersonal processes, and that social networks and communication ability have a bi-directional relationship
over time. Aim 1 will characterize social network structure and processes among middle-aged and older adult Cl
users both prior to implantation and after 12 months of Cl use. We will also compare Cl users' social networks
to those of normal-hearing (NH) peers and evaluate the influence of age on social networks. Aim 2 will determine
the degree to which social network structure and processes explain long-term clinical communication outcomes
(i.e., speech recognition and HR-Qol) at 12 months of Cl use. Aim 3 will investigate cognitive compensation as
a potential mechanism underlying the longitudinal and bi-directional relationship between social networks and
speech recognition, over the first 12 months of Cl use. We will specifically evaluate the use of predictive sentence
context in sentence recognition and its relationship to social network structure across individual Cl users. The
proposed research will...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10980202
- **Project number:** 1R01AG089200-01
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Terrin Nichole Tamati
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $714,791
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-23 → 2029-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10980202

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10980202, Social Networks for Optimizing Communication Ability in Adult Cochlear Implant Users (1R01AG089200-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10980202. Licensed CC0.

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