HEARING AIDS, COCHLEAR IMPLANTS, AND SPEECH RECOGNITION

描述：该项目将确定声学和发音 个体对语音的(误)知觉特征 使用助听器和人工耳蜗术的听力损失患者。该项目将 还调查了信号修改的效果，旨在克服 这些误解。 将使用两个程序来识别和类型的频率区域 这些听众所犯的错误。第一个过程是相关的 方法，是一种新的技术，可以快速可靠地估计 听者使用语音的不同频率区域和特征。这种方法 在临床测试、设计和使用方面具有很大的前景 助听器的装配，也用于评估和编程处理器 在人工耳蜗植入患者中。第二个步骤，使用过滤进行测试 语音，是一种更经得起时间考验的方法，产生的信息大致相同， 但以一种更长时间和更低效率的方式。在拟议的实验中， 这两种方法将结合使用来测试各自的有效性。 此外，这两种方法都可以用来检验关于 听力损失程度和患者使用可听语音的能力 信息。如果得到保证，相关方法将进一步 为临床应用而开发。 从相关方法获得的信息应用于 听力受损的患者会建议一些信号修改和 助听器和人工耳蜗术的策略。额外的实验 将测试这些策略在语音识别方面的效果 感音神经性耳聋的听者。

DESCRIPTION: This project will identify the acoustic and articulatory features of the (mis)perceptions of speech sounds made by individuals with hearing loss who use hearing aids and cochlear implants. The project will also investigate the effects of signal modifications designed to overcome these misperceptions. Two procedures will be used to identify the frequency regions of and types of errors that these listeners make. The first procedure, the correlational method, is a new technique that yields rapid and reliable estimates of how listeners use various frequency regions and features of speech. This method holds considerable promise for use in clinical testing, the design and fitting of hearing aids, and also for evaluating and programming processors in cochlear implant patients. The second procedure, testing with filtered speech, is a more time-tested method, yielding much the same information, but in a longer and less efficient fashion. In the proposed experiments, these two methods will be used in conjunction to test the validity of each. In addition, both methods can be used to test hypotheses concerning the degree of hearing loss and the ability of patients to use audible speech information. If warranted, the correlational method will be further developed for clinical application. The information obtained from the correlational method applied to hearing-impaired patients will suggest some signal modifications and strategies for hearing aids and cochlear implants. Additional experiments will test the efficacy of these strategies upon speech recognition in listeners with sensorineural hearing loss.