Signal Processing in Audition

作为唯一可以恢复聋人听力的医疗设备，人工耳蜗已经产生了良好的效果 安静的语音识别。然而，目前的植入物在语音识别方面受到严重限制 噪音和对音乐的感知。这项研究计划的长期目标是了解信号 在正常的听觉系统中进行处理，并通过听觉假体恢复功能性听力 听障人士。我们实验室和其他实验室最近的研究表明，音调、时间精细 结构和动态声学提示对于提高逼真的听力表现至关重要，但不是 在目前的人工耳蜗中进行了充分的编码。我们的工作假设是提取和编码 这些重要的线索将导致人工耳蜗植入性能的全面改善。我们提出三个建议 检验这一假说的新方法。三个具体目标涉及这些新方法的每一个：(1)Co- 不同的刺激率和位置来编码基音；(2)采用现代声码器算法来编码时间 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 多学科方法融合了心理物理学、语音编码和信号处理技术。一个 这种方法的独特之处在于，所有算法都是基于严格的心理物理和 模拟措施，并将在实际植入用户中进行实时评估和完善 实施。成功完成拟议的研究应产生高理论和高质量的结果 具有现实意义。它可能会促进对这一数百年历史但仍未解决的问题的科学知识 编码问题(目标1)，弥合相对初级的人工耳蜗术和人工耳机之间的技术差距 现代电信(目标2)，并启发从基础研究到临床问题的翻译工作 (目标3)。

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 three novel methods to test this hypothesis. The three 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).