Why does a cochlear implant user struggle more to discriminate 'ba' from 'da' than 'ma' from 'na'?

💡 Explanation

Cochlear implants rely on electrical stimulation, and fine-grained temporal information is often degraded. Because 'ba' and 'da' differ primarily in Voice Onset Time (VOT), a temporal cue, the implants struggle to convey the distinction; therefore, VOT differences are missed, rather than differences in nasal resonance which are largely spectral.

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