Speech understanding and signal detection in noise in bilateral cochlear implants

这项拟议的研究旨在将语音理解、双耳听力、声音 定位和人工耳蜗术(CI)。这项拟议的研究是新颖的，因为它旨在了解 受控多电极刺激下双侧顺应性的优势、能力和局限性 更“真实”的听觉信号，是在时间上调节的。受控多电极刺激研究 而对双耳调制刺激的研究最近才刚刚开始。对这一主题的研究是合乎逻辑的下一步 |介入双侧CI研究；h；转向较少控制和更复杂的听觉刺激。这会有帮助的 提供对双侧植入的重要优势的理解，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 [丰富的听觉系统，这些差异足以改变重要的声学信息 显著降低双耳听力优势。这些差异包括但不限于： 胆道间强直位置不匹配，耳间神经存活不等，音量增长不一 不同的电极和耳朵，通道相互作用，部分或完全缺乏耳间声音融合，以及 基底膜缺乏声刺激的行波。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。其他限制包括 这是电刺激所固有的，不能用当前一代顺式刺激来补偿。这个 建议研究的指导阶段侧重于单电极双耳信号检测和声音 本地化。拟议研究的独立阶段将侧重于多电极双耳信号 [在真实的收听环境中检测、声音定位和理解语音。最终目的是 是为双边CI用户本地化声音和理解语音的能力提供双耳优势 难听的环境，如嘈杂或混响的房间。这项研究有可能指导 单方法双侧适形顺位的临床应用。

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.