Speech Perception and Phonological Memory with Combined Electric Acoustic Hearing

描述(由申请人提供)：本研究项目的目的是评估在电信号中添加低频声学信号(即，在人工耳蜗物的对侧耳朵安装助听器)如何影响人工耳蜗术受者的语音处理。先前的研究表明，人工耳蜗提供的有限的光谱线索会导致在嘈杂环境中的语音识别能力较差，从而阻碍语音识别的成功。本项目的第一个目标是确定双峰刺激的使用如何影响单个说话者对孤立元音、语音性别和方言的识别。三组研究参与者(即单侧人工耳蜗者、双侧人工耳蜗者和同时使用助听器和人工耳蜗者)将完成测试，这些测试评估：1)噪声中的言语感知能力，2)语音性别识别和方言辨别/分类，3)元音识别。第二个目的是评估双峰刺激对发音不同和发音相似的元音的语音记忆能力的影响，并确定个体的工作记忆技能如何影响说话者的识别。为此，研究参与者将被要求回忆语音相似或不相似的孤立元音的简短列表。这些过程测量的结果将与目标I研究的结果进行比较，目的是评估语音工作记忆在言语知觉中的贡献。预计这项研究的结果将确立人工耳蜗术后继续使用助听器的重要性。此外，这项研究的发现将为未来与改善语音精细结构编码相关的人工耳蜗技术的发展提供方向。这些技术的进步最终将提高人工耳蜗术后患者的言语感知能力。这项研究旨在建立语音感知中个体辨别能力和即时语音记忆技能之间的联系。因此，这项研究将有助于提供更多关于结果表现个体差异的潜在基础的知识，这种差异在人工耳蜗组中被广泛观察到。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this research project is to assess how the addition of a low-frequency acoustic signal to an electrical signal (i.e., a hearing aid in opposite ear to a cochlear implant) affects the processing of speech in cochlear implant recipients. Previous research has shown that the limited spectral cues provided by a cochlear implant results in poor speech recognition in noisy environments and prevents successful voice identification. The first aim of this project is to determine how the use of bimodal stimulation affects the identification of isolated vowels, voice-gender and the dialect of individual talkers. Three groups of study participants (i.e., unilateral cochlear implant recipients, bilateral cochlear implant recipients, and individuals using both a hearing aid and a cochlear implant) will complete tests that assess: 1) speech perception abilities in noise, 2) voice-gender identification and dialect discrimination/categorization, and 3) vowel recognition. The second aim is to assess the effects of bimodal stimulation on phonological memory capacity for acoustically distinct and acoustically similar vowels, and determine how individual working memory skills affect talker recognition. For this aim, study participants will be asked to recall short lists of isolated vowels that are either phonologically similar or phonologically dissimilar. The findings from these process measures will be compared with the findings from the Aim I studies to assess the contribution of phonological working memory in speech perception. It is expected that the results from this study will establish the importance of continued hearing aid use following cochlear implantation. Additionally, the findings from this study will provide the direction for future advances in cochlear implant technology related to improving the coding of the fine structure of speech. These technological advances will ultimately improve the speech perception abilities of cochlear implant recipients. This research is designed to establish links between individual discrimination abilities and immediate phonological memory skills in speech perception. Consequently, this research will contribute additional knowledge about the underlying basis for the individual variability in outcome performance that is widely observed within the cochlear implant population.