Tone development in children with cochlear implants

描述（由申请人提供）：世界上超过四分之一的人口使用声调语言。其中，普通话是最常用的。在声调语言中，单音节单词的音高或声调模式传达词汇意义。目前的人工耳蜗设计缺乏复杂声音（如语音信号）的音高信息，这对使用声调语言的患者来说是一个特殊的挑战。本研究的目的是探讨普通话儿童植入人工耳蜗后的语音发展（即语音感知和语音产生）。与音调发展相关的因素将被确定。潜在因素包括实足年龄、耳聋发病年龄、种植体使用时间、家庭背景、使用的语音处理策略、教育特征等。在拟议的研究中，所有受试者将从中国最大的人工耳蜗中心北京同仁医院的患者人群中招募。接受多通道人工耳蜗植入的母语为普通话的幼儿（N= 60）、年龄匹配的正常听力儿童（N= 60）和听力受损儿童（N= 60）将测试他们的声调感知能力，即识别普通话单音节单词中不同声调模式的能力。此外，还将记录听力正常和耳蜗植入儿童的语言材料。语音样本将用于：1)音调模式的声学分析；2)感知测试，由听力正常的母语为普通话的成人（N= 10）对儿童所发出的音节进行声调识别，并判断儿童发出的声调的可理解性。将进行多元回归分析，以确定上述因素与音调感知和生产措施之间的任何关联。虽然本研究主要关注声调的感知和产生，但它对非声调语言的使用者具有重要的意义。更好的音高信息表示将有助于区分多个说话者，并为人工耳蜗使用者提供音乐感知。因此，提出的研究可以改善许多人工耳蜗使用者的生活质量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): More than a quarter of the world population speaks tone languages. Among them, Mandarin Chinese is the most commonly spoken. In tone languages, the pitch or tone pattern of a monosyllabic word conveys lexical meaning. The paucity of pitch information for complex sounds (such as speech signals) in current cochlear implant design imposes a special challenge for patients who speak tone languages. The purpose of the proposed study is to investigate tone development (i.e., tone perception and tone production) in Mandarin speaking children with cochlear implants. Factors associated with tone development will be identified. Potential factors include chronological age, age of onset of deafness, duration of implant use, family background, speech-processing strategy used, educational characteristics, etc. In the proposed study, all subjects will be recruited from the patient population at Beijing Tongren Hospital, the largest cochlear implant center in China. Native Mandarin-speaking young children who have received multichannel cochlear implants (N= 60), age-matched normal-hearing children (N= 60), and hearing-impaired children (N =60) will be tested for their tone perception, the ability to recognize different tone patterns in Mandarin monosyllabic words. In addition, speech materials will be recorded from normal-hearing and cochlear-implant children. The speech samples will then be used for: 1) acoustic analysis of the tone patterns; and 2) perception tests in which normal-hearing native Mandarin-speaking adults (N= 10) will perform tone recognition on the syllables produced by the children and judge the intelligibility of the children's tone production. Multiple regression analyses will be performed to identify any associations of the above listed factors with the tone perception and production measures. Although the proposed study is primarily concerned with tone perception and production, it has important implications for speakers of non-tonal languages. A better representation of pitch information would be helpful in separating multiple talkers and providing music perception for cochlear-implant users. Therefore, the proposed study could improve quality of life for many cochlear implant users.