From the University of Wisconsin (at Madison?):
"In addition to completing the task while wearing both implants, the children [aged 5-14] were asked to remove the microphone and other external parts of one, rendering them deaf again in that ear.

"That turns out to be an interesting experience, because they don't like to remove an implant," says Litovsky. "We have to barter for that, with M&Ms or something else that motivates them.""

I could've told you that would happen, and without a longitudinal study, too. People don't like reducing their capabilities, even temporarily.

Not long after I was diagnosed - so when I was three - a doctor bribed me to walk up and down a hallway as many times as I could by giving me a quarter for each round trip. Bribery works ... although I think my scale has gone up in the intervening years.