Binaural Unmasking in Children with Cochlear Implants

描述（由申请人提供）：儿童双侧人工耳蜗植入术越来越受欢迎，旨在提高在干扰刺激下定位声源和理解言语的能力。然而，与听力正常的收听者的表现相比，双侧人工耳蜗植入者的双耳优势 接收是有限的。双耳听力限制的来源目前知之甚少， 可能包括耳蜗植入装置的局限性和听者听觉系统处理的局限性。通过双侧耳蜗植入物的刺激提供了相对于原始声学信号的退化的双耳信息，并且可能无法促进儿童的双耳听力。提高知识的敏感性，儿童与人工耳蜗植入双耳线索是必要的，以改善技术和治疗的儿童与人工耳蜗植入。将使用直接电刺激检查双侧人工耳蜗植入儿童的双耳掩蔽水平差异，以绕过临床人工耳蜗植入并呈现双侧协调刺激。将相对于双侧人工耳蜗植入成人和听力正常儿童，检查双侧人工耳蜗植入儿童的双耳灵敏度。此外，将检查听力正常儿童相对于听力正常成人的双耳灵敏度。双耳掩蔽电平差是噪声中信号检测的双耳优势的量度。双耳掩蔽水平差异的检查是重要的，因为它将提高对双耳优势的局限性的理解，以便将语音与噪声分离。本研究将通过检查与真实世界听觉刺激相关的刺激条件下的双耳掩蔽水平差异，进一步了解双侧人工耳蜗植入儿童的双耳敏感性。目标1将使用单对左右电极检查刺激带宽对双耳掩蔽水平差异的影响。目标2将使用两对左右电极检查电极之间距离的影响。这项研究的结果将为推进人工耳蜗植入技术提供信息，使儿童受益，并将提高对听觉系统发育的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Bilateral cochlear implantation in children is becoming increasingly popular in an effort to improve the ability to localize sound sources and understand speech in the presence of interfering stimuli. However, compared to the performance of normally hearing listeners, the binaural advantages that listeners with bilateral cochlear implants receive are limited. Sources of limitations in binaural hearing are currently poorly understood but may include limitations with cochlear implant devices and limitations in auditory system processing of listeners. Stimulation through bilateral cochlear implants provides degraded binaural information relative to the original acoustic signal and may fail to foster binaural hearig in children. Improving knowledge on the sensitivity of children with cochlear implants to binaural cues is necessary for improving technology and treatment of children with cochlear implants. Binaural masking level differences of children with bilateral cochlear implants will be examined using direct electrical stimulation to bypass the clinical cochlear implants and present bilaterall coordinated stimuli. Binaural sensitivity of children with bilateral cochlear implants will be examined relative to adults with bilateral cochlear implants and children with normal hearing. In addition, binaural sensitivity of children with normal hearing will be examined relative to adults with normal hearing. Binaural masking level differences are a measure of the binaural advantage for signal detection in noise. Examination of binaural masking level differences is important as it will improve understanding of limitations in the binaural advantage for segregating speech from noise. This study will further the understanding of binaural sensitivity of children with bilateral cochlear implants by examining binaural masking level differences under stimulus conditions which are relevant to real-world auditory stimuli. Aim 1 will examine the effect of stimulus bandwidth on binaural masking level differences using a single pair of left-right electrodes. Aim 2 will examine the effect of distance between electrodes using two pairs of left-right electrodes. Findings from this study will be informative for advancing cochlear implant technology in ways such that children receive benefits and will improve understanding of the development of the auditory system.