Elsevier Editorial System(tm) for Hearing Research Manuscript Draft ...

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et al., 2009) using ICA as the main pre-processing method. The development of CIAC opens new
doors in the use of EEG as a routine tool to assess auditory cortical function in CI users, since the
types of auditory stimuli, as well as the experimental design do not need to be strongly conditioned in
order to minimize CI artifacts. In the context of CI rehabilitation further research is needed to evaluate
the value of late AEPs, for instance in helping with the CI fitting procedure, or in response to speech
sounds in patient groups that cannot voluntarily report their electrical hearing experience, such as early
implanted children (Kileny, 2007). Accordingly we envision that measures of auditory cortex function
as assessed with late AEPs can be of use in CI configuration from initial setup to the long-term
monitoring of rehabilitation progress. We fully agree with the view that developing the ability of the
brain to learn how to use an implant may be as important as further improvements of CI device
technology (Moore and Shannon, 2009). In this context CIAC may be an improvement, as it facilitates
the investigation of auditory cortex functions in CI users.
5. Conclusion
The CIAC algorithm reported here provides a fast, user-friendly and objective method to correct
electrical CI artifacts from AEP recordings. We hope that this freely available tool will support
research investigating auditory cortex reorganization during CI adaptation and rehabilitation, since it is
a significant step towards the objective and efficient study of late AEPs. As CIAC will be provided as
an open source plugin to be used with the popular EEGLAB toolbox, we hope that other researchers
will contribute to its further development, validation and, ultimately, its clinical application.
Acknowledgements
F.C.V. was funded by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Lisbon, Portugal
(SFRH/BD/37662/2007). M.D.V. was supported by a Alexander von-Humboldt stipendium. P.S. was
supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number PBZHP3-128462). The authors
would like to thank A. Barks for assistance with recording the data and J.D. Thorne for helpful
discussions.
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