Enhancing Tone Recognition for Cochlear Implant Users

增强人工耳蜗用户的音调识别能力

• 批准号: 7100427
• 负责人: XIN LUO
• 金额: $ 9.33万
• 依托单位: HOUSE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-01 至 2009-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7100427
• 关键词: auditory stimulus; biomedical equipment development; clinical research; cochlear implants; cues; electrostimulus; hearing aids; human subject; medical implant science; neural information processing; nonEnglish language; patient oriented research; sound frequency; sound perception; speech recognition; speech synthesizers

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall long-term goal of this research is to develop novel speech processing strategies for cochlear implant users speaking tonal languages. In attempt to improve tonal language perception in cochlear implants, the present application focuses on enhancing the transmission of tonal information in electric hearing, because tonal information is crucial for speech perception in tonal languages, and that current cochlear implants do not provide sufficient tonal information for users. Three experiments are proposed to enhance different tone- related information in cochlear implants. Specific Aim 1 is to investigate whether pre-processors modifying single syllable's overall amplitude envelope, to better resemble its fundamental frequency contour, can enhance tone recognition in cochlear implants. Pilot studies revealed that such amplitude envelope modifications significantly improved Chinese tone recognition in 4-channel cochlear implant acoustic simulations, without adversely affecting vowel recognition. Tone and vowel recognition of tonal-language-speaking cochlear implant users will be tested under different amounts of such amplitude envelope modifications, to search for the best trade-off between tone recognition improvement and possible vowel recognition decrease. Specific Aim 2 is to investigate tonal language perception in speech-shaped noise or speech-babble noise with cochlear implant recipients using a hearing aid in the non-implanted ear. Pilot studies, using acoustic simulations of a cochlear implant with a hearing aid, showed that Chinese sentence recognition in speech-shaped noise was significantly enhanced as more low frequency information was added; specifically, such sentence recognition enhancement was mostly due to better tone recognition when the low frequency information was 500 Hz. The effects of frequency range and signal level of the low frequency acoustic hearing restored by a hearing aid, as a complement to the contra-lateral electric hearing, will be investigated. Specific Aim 3 is to investigate whether tonal information can be effectively encoded using extra low pitch sensations produced by wide bipolar stimulation modes in cochlear implants. Pilot studies using 4-channel cochlear implant acoustic simulations revealed that Chinese tone recognition was significantly enhanced as the number of extra frequency channels in the pitch range was increased. Device implementation and applications of mixed stimulation modes for tonal language speech processing in cochlear implants will be investigated.

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的总体长期目标是为讲声调语言的人工耳蜗植入用户开发新的语音处理策略。为了尝试改善耳蜗植入物中的音调语言感知，本申请集中于增强电听觉中音调信息的传输，因为音调信息对于音调语言中的语音感知是至关重要的，并且当前的耳蜗植入物不能为用户提供足够的音调信息。提出了三个实验来增强人工耳蜗中不同的音调相关信息。具体目标1是研究预处理器是否修改单音节的整体幅度包络，以更好地类似于其基频轮廓，可以提高人工耳蜗中的音调识别。初步研究表明，这种幅度包络修改显着提高了中国的声调识别在4通道人工耳蜗植入声学模拟，而不会产生不利影响元音识别。将在不同量的这种振幅包络修改下测试讲声调语言的人工耳蜗用户的声调和元音识别，以寻找声调识别改善和可能的元音识别降低之间的最佳权衡。具体目标2是研究在非植入耳中使用助听器的人工耳蜗植入者在语音形状噪声或语音多路噪声中的音调语言感知。初步研究，使用声学模拟的人工耳蜗与助听器，表明，中文句子识别语音形状的噪音显着增强，因为更多的低频信息被添加;具体地说，这种句子识别的增强主要是由于更好的音调识别时，低频信息为500赫兹。作为对侧电听力的补充，助听器恢复低频声听力的频率范围和信号电平的影响将被研究。具体目标3是研究音调信息是否可以有效地编码使用超低音的感觉所产生的宽双极刺激模式在人工耳蜗植入。使用4通道人工耳蜗声学模拟的初步研究表明，汉语声调识别显着增强的额外频率通道的数量在音高范围内增加。将研究人工耳蜗中音调语言语音处理的混合刺激模式的设备实现和应用。