Signal Processing in Audition

描述(申请人提供)：作为唯一可以恢复聋人听力的医疗设备，人工耳蜗在安静的情况下产生了良好的语音识别效果。然而，目前的植入物严重限制了噪声中的语音识别和音乐感知。这项研究计划的长期目标是了解正常听觉系统中的信号处理，并通过听觉假体恢复听力受损的人的功能性听力。我们实验室和其他实验室最近的工作表明，基音、时间精细结构和动态声学线索对于提高现实听力成绩至关重要，但在目前的人工耳蜗术中没有得到充分的编码。我们的工作假设是，对这些重要线索的提取和编码将导致人工耳蜗植入性能的整体改善。我们提出了3种新的方法来检验这一假设。这三个具体目标分别针对这些新方法：(1)共变刺激率和位置来编码基音；(2)采用现代声码器算法来编码时间精细结构；(3)使用生物启发的信号处理来编码动态声学提示。我们的多学科方法集成了心理物理学、语音编码和信号处理技术。这种方法的一个独特特点是，所有算法都是基于严格的心理物理和模拟措施开发的，并将在实际植入用户中进行评估和完善，并进行实时实施。成功完成拟议的研究应该会产生具有很高理论和实践意义的结果。它可能会推进对数百年来但仍未解决的音调编码问题的科学知识(目标1)，弥合相对初级的人工耳蜗术和现代电信之间的技术差距(目标2)，并启发从基础研究到临床问题的翻译工作(目标3)。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As the only medical device that can restore hearing in deaf people, the cochlear implant has produced good speech recognition in quiet. However, the current implants are seriously limited in speech recognition in noise and in music perception. The long-term objectives of this research program are to understand signal processing in the normal auditory system and to restore functional hearing via auditory prostheses in hearing-impaired persons. Recent work from our laboratory and others has shown that pitch, temporal fine structure, and dynamic acoustic cues are crucial to improve realistic listening performance, but are not adequately encoded in current cochlear implants. Our working hypothesis is that extraction and encoding of these important cues will lead to an overall improvement in cochlear implant performance. We propose 3 novel methods to test this hypothesis. The 3 Specific Aims address each of these novel methods: (1) Co-vary stimulation rate and position to encode pitch; (2) Adapt modern vocoder algorithms to encode temporal fine structure; and (3) Use biologically-inspired signal processing to encode dynamic acoustic cues. Our multidisciplinary approach integrates psychophysical, speech coding, and signal processing techniques. A unique feature of this approach is that all algorithms are developed based on rigorous psychophysical and simulation measures, and will be evaluated and perfected in actual implant users with real-time implementations. Successful completion of the proposed research should yield results of high theoretical and practical significance. It will likely advance scientific knowledge on the centuries-old but still unresolved pitch coding question (Aim 1), bridge the technological gap between relatively rudimentary cochlear implants and modern telecommunication (Aim 2), and inspire translational work from basic research to clinical problems (Aim 3).