Speech understanding and signal detection in noise in bilateral cochlear implants

描述（由申请人提供）：申请人目前的研究涉及单侧和双侧人工耳蜗（CI）使用者的语音理解和声音定位。具体而言，申请人研究了CI用户中中矢状面声音定位的耳廓线索的包含和检测。包括语音理解实验、直接多电极刺激实验和声音定位实验。申请人还继续研究动态双耳现象，这是他在密歇根州立大学的论文题目。动态双耳现象与在困难的听力条件下理解语言有关，比如混响或嘈杂的房间。建议的研究将是博士后和论文研究领域的自然延续。它的目标是结合语言理解、双耳听力、声音定位和人工耳蜗植入等领域。这项研究是新颖的，因为它旨在了解受控多电极刺激下双侧CIs的优势、能力和局限性。可控多电极刺激研究最近才开始；这项研究的大部分是在赞助商的实验室进行的。对这一课题的研究是双边CI研究的必然下一步；这将有助于理解双侧植入的一个重要优势，即在嘈杂环境中理解语言。推动这项工作的主要假设是，当前的CI系统引入了与健康听觉系统的根本差异，这些差异改变了重要的声学信息，足以显著削弱任何双耳听觉优势。其中一些限制可以通过不同的处理方案来补偿，而其他限制是电刺激固有的，不能用当前一代的ci来补偿。建议的研究指导阶段将集中在单电极双耳信号检测上。独立阶段的研究将集中在多电极双耳信号检测和现实听力环境下的语音理解。最终目的是为双耳CI用户的语音理解提供双耳优势。相关：人工耳蜗领域的主要目标是为深度聋人提供更好的语言理解。这一领域的一个主要研究问题是用两只耳朵听。拟议的工作将系统地检查可能导致耳蜗植入者和正常听力听者之间声学感知差异的因素。这些研究将指导未来人工耳蜗的设计。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The applicant's current research involves speech understanding and sound localization for unilateral and bilateral cochlear-implant (CI) users. Specifically, the applicant studies the inclusion and detection of pinna cues for median-sagittal-plane sound localization in CI users. It involves speech understanding experiments, experiments with direct multi-electrode stimulation, and sound localization experiments. The applicant also continues to work on dynamic binaural phenomena, which was his dissertation topic at Michigan State University. Dynamic binaural phenomena are related to understanding speech in difficult listening conditions, like reverberant or noisy rooms. The proposed research will be a natural continuation of the post-doc and dissertation research areas. It aims to combine the areas of speech understanding, binaural hearing, sound localization, and cochlear implants. The proposed research is novel because it aims to understand the advantages, capabilities, and limitations of bilateral CIs under controlled multi-electrode stimulation. Controlled multi-electrode stimulation research has only started recently; much of this research is being performed at the sponsor's lab. Research on this topic is a logical next step in bilateral CI research; it would help provide understanding of an important advantage of bilateral implantation, that of understanding speech in noisy environments. The main hypothesis driving this work is that current CI systems introduce fundamental differences from the healthy auditory system, and these differences alter important acoustic information enough to significantly diminish any binaural hearing advantage. Some of these limitations may be compensated by different processing schemes, while others are intrinsic to electrical stimulation and cannot be compensated with the current generation of CIs. The mentored phase of the proposed research will focus on single- electrode binaural signal detection. The independent phase of the proposed research will focus on multi- electrode binaural signal detection and speech understanding in realistic listening environments. The ultimate aim is to provide a binaural advantage to bilateral CI users' speech understanding. RELEVANCE: The main goal in the field of cochlear implants is to provide better speech understanding for profoundly deaf individuals. A major research question in this field is hearing with two ears. The proposed work will systematically examine factors that may cause a difference in acoustic perception between cochlear-implant and normal-hearing listeners. These studies will guide the design of future cochlear implants.