Speech understanding and signal detection in noise in bilateral cochlear implants

该研究旨在将言语理解、双耳听觉、声音识别、听觉和听觉等领域的研究成果联合收割机结合起来， 定位和人工耳蜗植入（CI）。这项拟议中的研究是新颖的，因为它旨在了解 受控多电极刺激下双侧CI的优势、能力和局限性， 更"真实"的听觉小环，在时间上被调制。可控多电极刺激研究 并且对双耳调制刺激的研究最近才开始。对这个主题的研究是顺理成章的 |步骤在双边CI研究; h;移动到较少控制和更复杂的听觉刺激。这将有助于 了解双侧植入的一个重要优势，即理解语言， 嘈杂的环境。 推动这项工作的主要假设是，当前的CI系统引入了与 [the丰富的听觉系统，这些差异足以改变重要的声学信息， 显著地减少任何双耳听力优势。这些差异包括但不限于： 耳间音调位置不匹配，耳间神经存活不相等， 单个电极和耳朵、通道相互作用、部分或完全缺乏耳间声音融合，以及 缺乏;沿着基底膜的声波刺激。其中一些限制可能是 通过不同的处理方案或对物理设备的改变来补偿。其它限制 这是电刺激固有的，并且不能用当前产生的CI来补偿。的 导师阶段的研究重点放在单电极双耳信号检测和声音 本地化独立阶段的研究将集中在多电极双耳信号 [检测、声音定位和理解真实收听环境中的语音。最终目标 为双侧CI用户定位声音和理解语音的能力提供双耳优势， 困难的听音环境，如嘈杂或混响的房间。这项研究有可能指导 临床实施双侧拟合CI的Uniforn方法。

The proposed research aims to combine the areas of speech understanding, binaural hearing, sound localization, and cochlear implants (CIs). The proposed research Is novel because it aims to understand the advantages, capabilities, and limitations of bilateral CIs under controlled multi-electrode stimulation and of more "realistic" auditory stiniuli that are modulated in time. Controlled multi-electrode stimulation research and research on binaural modulated stimuli has only started recently. Research on this topic Is a logical next |step in bilateral CI researx;h; moving to less controlled and more complex auditory stimuli. It would help provide understanding of an important advantage of bilateral Implantation, that of understanding speech in noisy environments. the main hypothesis driving this work Is that current CI systems introduce fundamental differences from [the Wealthy auditory system, and these differences alter important acoustic information enough to significantly diminish any binaural hearing advantage. These differences include, but are not limited to: interjaural tonotopic place mismatch, unequal interaural neural survival, varying loudness growth between indi\>idual electrodes and ears, channel interactions, partial or complete lack of interaural sound fusion, and lack;of travelling wave of an acoustic stimulus along the basilar membrane. Some of these limitations may be compensated by different processing schemes or changes to the physical devices. Other limitations are intrinsic to electrical stimulation and cannot be compensated with the current generation of CIs. The mentored phase of the proposed research focused on single-electrode binaural signal detection and sound localization. The independent phase of the proposed research will focus on multi-electrode binaural signal [detection, sound localization, and understanding speech in realistic listening environments. The ultimate aim is to provide a binaural advantage to bilateral CI users' ability to localize sounds and to understand speech in difficult listening environments, like noisy or reverberant rooms. This research has potential to guide the clinical implementation of a Unlfonn method of bilateral fitting of CIs.