Dynamic Pitch Perception with Cochlear Implants

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然许多人工耳蜗使用者在安静环境下能很好地理解语音，但在嘈杂环境下，大多数人在语音语调和音乐旋律识别方面表现不佳。动态音高线索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，人们对CI用户动态音高感知的机制和因素知之甚少。在这个项目中，我们提出了使用新的编码策略来研究和增强CI的动态音高感知的实验。据推测，将频率通道内和跨频率通道的地点和时间音高线索最佳地结合起来，并使用频率滑动来连接离散的音调爆发，将有助于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的的实验来验证。目的1是评估CI用户在单个电极对上结合地点和时间基音线索的基音轮廓识别。目的2是评估CI用户在信号和掩模信道之间的基音轮廓辨别干扰。目的3是评估CI用户对频率滑动连接的离散音调爆发的音高辨别和旋律轮廓识别。这些心理物理实验的结果将提高我们对CI用户对动态音高线索的整合的认识，告诉我们CI用户对连续和离散音高变化的感知是否不同，并提出有效的方法来增强CI对语音语调、音乐旋律和嘈杂语音的识别。

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.