Dynamic Pitch Perception with Cochlear Implants

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管许多人工耳蜗（CI）使用者在安静的情况下能够很好地理解语音，但他们中的大多数人在嘈杂的条件下以及在语音语调和音乐旋律识别方面表现不佳。动态音高提示对于提高这些具有挑战性的听力任务的表现至关重要。然而，很少有人知道的机制和因素，有助于CI用户的动态音高知觉。在这个项目中，实验提出了调查和增强动态音高感知与CI使用新的编码策略。它的假设，最佳地结合频率通道内和跨频率通道的位置和时间音高线索，并使用频率滑动连接离散的音调突发将导致更好地识别音高变化模式。这些假设将通过三个具有特定目标的实验进行验证。目的1是评估CI用户的音高轮廓识别与组合的地方和时间的音高线索在个别电极对。目的二是评估CI使用者的音高轮廓辨别力在信号通道和掩蔽通道之间的干扰。目的三是评估CI使用者对频率滑动连接的离散纯音的音高辨别力和旋律轮廓识别力。这些心理物理实验的结果将推进我们的知识整合动态音高线索CI用户，告诉我们，如果连续和离散音高变化是不同的CI用户的感知，并建议有效的方法来提高语音语调，音乐旋律，和嘈杂的语音识别与CI。 公共卫生相关性：这项研究将极大地帮助人工耳蜗使用者面对识别语音语调、音乐旋律和噪音中的语音的巨大挑战。这些任务性能的提高将提高整体生活质量，并扭转大量人工耳蜗植入者的社会孤立状况。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although many cochlear implant (CI) users understand speech well in quiet, most of them perform poorly in noisy conditions and in speech intonation and music melody recognition. Dynamic pitch cues are crucial to improve performance in these challenging listening tasks. However, little is known about the mechanisms and factors that contribute to CI users' dynamic pitch perception. In this project, experiments are proposed to investigate and enhance dynamic pitch perception with CI using novel coding strategies. It's hypothesized that optimally combining place and temporal pitch cues within and across frequency channels and using frequency glides to connect discrete tone bursts will lead to better identification of pitch change patterns. The hypotheses will be tested by three experiments with specific aims. Aim 1 is to assess CI users' pitch contour identification with combined place and temporal pitch cues on individual electrode pairs. Aim 2 is to assess CI users' pitch contour discrimination interference between a signal and a masker channels. Aim 3 is to assess CI users' pitch discrimination and melodic contour identification with discrete tone bursts connected by frequency glides. The outcomes of these psychophysical experiments will advance our knowledge on the integration of dynamic pitch cues by CI users, tell us if continuous and discrete pitch changes are differently perceived by CI users, and suggest effective ways to enhance speech intonation, music melody, and noisy speech recognition with CI. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research will greatly help cochlear implant users face the big challenges of recognizing speech intonations, music melodies, and speech in noise. Improved performance in these tasks will increase the overall quality of life and reverse the social isolation for a large number of cochlear implant users.