Signal Processing in Audition

描述（由申请人提供）：作为唯一可以恢复聋人听力的医疗器械，人工耳蜗植入体在安静的情况下产生了良好的语音识别。然而，目前的植入物在噪声和音乐感知中的语音识别方面受到严重限制。该研究项目的长期目标是了解正常听觉系统的信号处理，并通过听觉假体恢复听障人士的功能性听力。我们实验室和其他人最近的工作表明，音高，时间精细结构和动态声学线索是至关重要的，以提高现实的听力表现，但没有充分编码在当前的人工耳蜗植入。我们的工作假设是，这些重要线索的提取和编码将导致人工耳蜗性能的整体改善。我们提出了3种新的方法来验证这一假设。3个特定目标针对这些新方法中的每一个：（1）共变刺激速率和位置以编码音高;（2）适应现代声码器算法以编码时间精细结构;以及（3）使用生物启发的信号处理来编码动态声学提示。我们的多学科方法集成了心理物理学，语音编码和信号处理技术。这种方法的一个独特之处在于，所有算法都是基于严格的心理物理和模拟措施开发的，并将在实际植入用户中进行实时评估和完善。成功完成拟议的研究应产生具有高度理论和实际意义的结果。它可能会推进对几个世纪以来尚未解决的音高编码问题的科学认识（目标1），弥合相对初级的人工耳蜗植入和现代电信之间的技术差距（目标2），并激发从基础研究到临床问题的转化工作（目标3）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As the only medical device that can restore hearing in deaf people, the cochlear implant has produced good speech recognition in quiet. However, the current implants are seriously limited in speech recognition in noise and in music perception. The long-term objectives of this research program are to understand signal processing in the normal auditory system and to restore functional hearing via auditory prostheses in hearing-impaired persons. Recent work from our laboratory and others has shown that pitch, temporal fine structure, and dynamic acoustic cues are crucial to improve realistic listening performance, but are not adequately encoded in current cochlear implants. Our working hypothesis is that extraction and encoding of these important cues will lead to an overall improvement in cochlear implant performance. We propose 3 novel methods to test this hypothesis. The 3 Specific Aims address each of these novel methods: (1) Co-vary stimulation rate and position to encode pitch; (2) Adapt modern vocoder algorithms to encode temporal fine structure; and (3) Use biologically-inspired signal processing to encode dynamic acoustic cues. Our multidisciplinary approach integrates psychophysical, speech coding, and signal processing techniques. A unique feature of this approach is that all algorithms are developed based on rigorous psychophysical and simulation measures, and will be evaluated and perfected in actual implant users with real-time implementations. Successful completion of the proposed research should yield results of high theoretical and practical significance. It will likely advance scientific knowledge on the centuries-old but still unresolved pitch coding question (Aim 1), bridge the technological gap between relatively rudimentary cochlear implants and modern telecommunication (Aim 2), and inspire translational work from basic research to clinical problems (Aim 3).