Changes in pitch perception with cochlear implants over time

描述（由申请人提供）：总结：提出了三组实验，以解决人工耳蜗植入患者的临床相关问题，特别是那些已经和将要接受混合（短电极）人工耳蜗植入的患者。混合器仅植入耳蜗的高频区域，但通过植入物提供的语音信息通常来自较低的频率范围，不一定与被刺激的耳蜗频率匹配。初步数据表明，对于一些患者，与对这些基底电极的刺激相关联的音高可以随着时间的推移而显著改变为低得多的音高感觉。所获得的信息将增加对听觉感知如何调整到来自耳蜗植入物的这种频谱移位频率位置信息的理解，以及这与植入物的语音感知性能的关系。具体而言，该项目将：1）测量混合人工耳蜗植入体用户在从“连接”到植入体使用4年的不同时间的音高感觉，以确定音高感觉是否随时间变化; 2）测试改变语音处理器频率范围是否会导致音高感觉改变，以补偿语音的频谱偏移;以及3）在不同时间将言语感知表现与音高感觉相关联，以确定言语感知如何与音高感觉相关联。相关性：拟议中的研究将研究随着时间的推移，音高感知会发生多大变化，这是通过人工耳蜗听到声音的经验的结果，以及感知的音高是否可以预测植入物未来的语音理解。这些发现将对神经假体的设计可以根据感知反应进行评估的程度产生影响，感知反应可能会随着时间的推移而改变。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Summary: Three sets of experiments are proposed that address clinically relevant questions for cochlear implant patients, especially those who have and will receive the Hybrid (short-electrode) cochlear implant. The Hybrid is implanted only into the high-frequency region of the cochlea, but speech information provided through the implant is often from a lower frequency range not necessarily matched to the cochlear frequencies being stimulated. Preliminary data indicates that the pitch associated with stimulation to these basal electrodes can, for some patients, change dramatically over time to a much lower pitch sensation. The information obtained will increase understanding of how auditory perception can adjust to this spectrally shifted frequency-place information from cochlear implants, and how this relates to speech perception performance with the implant. Specifically, the project will: 1) measure pitch sensations in Hybrid cochlear implant users at various times from "hookup" up to 4 years of implant use, to determine if pitch sensations change over time; 2) test whether changing the speech processor frequency range causes pitch sensations to change, to compensate for the spectral shift of the speech; and 3) correlate speech perception performance with pitch sensations at various times, to determine how speech perception relates to pitch sensation. Relevance: The proposed research will study how much pitch perception changes over time, as a result of experience with hearing sounds through a cochlear implant, and whether perceived pitch can be a predictor of future speech understanding with the implant. These findings will have implications for how much the design of neural prostheses can be evaluated based on perceptual responses, which may be altered over time by experience.