Dynamic Pitch Perception with Cochlear Implants

描述(申请人提供)：虽然许多人工耳蜗(CI)使用者在安静的情况下听得很好，但他们中的大多数人在嘈杂的环境中表现不佳，在语音语调和音乐旋律识别方面表现不佳。在这些具有挑战性的听力任务中，动态音调提示对于提高表现至关重要。然而，人们对CI用户动态基音感知的机制和因素知之甚少。在本项目中，提出了使用新的编码策略来研究和增强基于CI的动态基音感知的实验。假设最佳地组合频率通道内和通道之间的地点和时间音调提示，并使用频率滑动来连接离散的音调突发，将导致更好地识别音调变化模式。这些假说将通过三个有特定目的的实验来检验。目的1是评估CI使用者在单个电极对上结合地点和时间音高线索识别音高轮廓的能力。目标2是评估CI用户在信号和掩蔽信道之间的基音轮廓辨别干扰。目标3是评估CI用户在通过频率滑动连接离散音串时的音调辨别和旋律轮廓识别能力。这些心理物理实验的结果将促进我们对CI用户对动态音调线索的整合的了解，告诉我们CI用户是否对连续和离散的音调变化有不同的感知，并提出有效的方法来增强CI用户的语音语调、音乐旋律和噪声语音识别。 与公共健康相关：拟议中的研究将极大地帮助人工耳机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。改善这些任务的表现将提高整体生活质量，扭转大量人工耳蜗者的社会隔离状态。

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.