基于全相位滤波器的电子耳蜗汉语音调感知及改进研究

针对电子耳蜗音调信息感知差的问题,在多导电子耳蜗机理模型的基础上,利用零(或全)相位滤波器以及希尔伯特变换,提取并分解16个通道信号的包络和精细结构,用多种方式嵌合成声音,对正常人耳测听合成音的音调信息,以确定信号的包络和精细结构对音调感知的影响。测试结果表明:精细结构相对包络对音调感知起着更重要的作用,且该作用主要表现在低频段(约1.2 kHz以内)通道上。研究发现,在固定通道上,精细结构与通道中心频率和相位信息决定的包络出现时刻对应,其音调感知与低通道电极刺激的脉冲发放时间有关。研究结论:在低频段电极上增加刺激脉冲发放时刻的控制对提高电子耳蜗音调感知是重要的,同时应注意滤波器的相位保真。     

人工耳蜗的环境声识别研究

对14位正常听力者开展了环境声的人工耳蜗仿真声识别实验,比较了两类声码器仿真(正弦载波和噪声载波)条件下的环境声识别效果差异,然后对9位讲普通话的成年人工耳蜗植入者开展了环境声识别实验。实验材料是从互联网上搜集,并经过12位正常听力者主观测试验证后,筛选出的67种环境声。结果显示,载波类型没有对67种环境声的平均识别效果产生显著影响,但是声学特征的差异会导致单个环境声的识别效果对载波类型有依赖。另外,人工耳蜗植入者的环境声识别效果较差,有待通过信号处理策略、神经接口和康复手段的改进而得到提高。本研究中开发的环境声材料可以用于评估人工耳蜗环境声识别效果。     

语音中相位的听觉感知实验研究

人的听觉对语音信号中相位的感知比较迟钝,因而对语音信号进行处理和编码时常常不关心相位失真。实际上,相位失真到一定程度时会明显导致语音质量的下降。为了取得高质量的声码器,语音谱分量的相位信息是不能不考虑的。本文通过主观听觉测试实验研究了语音信号的短时Fourier变换相位谱对人的听觉感知的影响。测试结果表明:(1)如果完全舍弃原相位信息,则得到的重建语音含有很强的噪声且自然度很差;(2)不论舍弃高频段还是低频段的相位信息,均能导致听觉感知差异;(3)当相位的量阶小于π/7时,人的听觉系统将分辨不出重建语音和原始语音之间存在的差异.     

骨导超声听觉感知进展与研究*

骨导超声听觉感知是超声振动通过头骨传导产生听觉感知的一种特殊现象。本文首先介绍了骨导超声听觉感知研究领域的国内外发展现状,在此基础上设计了一套骨导超声听觉感知测试系统,并完成了系统的软、硬件平台实现。利用该系统,分别对听力正常和听力障碍被试者进行了主观测试,围绕单频超声感知效果及单频可听声、汉语语音由超声载波调制后的感知效果开展研究,比较了多种不同调制方式下的主观感知效果,并分析了空气传导声对实验结果的影响。     

语音中元音和辅音的听觉感知研究

本文对语音中元音和辅音的听觉感知研究进行综述。80多年前基于无意义音节的权威实验结果表明辅音对人的听感知更为重要,由于实验者在学术上的成就和权威性,这一结论成为了常识,直到近20年前基于自然语句的实验挑战了这个结论并引发了新一轮的研究。本文主要围绕元音和辅音对语音感知的相对重要性、元音和辅音的稳态信息和边界动态信息对语音感知的影响以及相关研究的潜在应用等进行较为系统的介绍,最后给出了总结与展望。     

蚱蝉Cryptotympana atrata听觉的电生理研究

本文报道了蚱蝉Cryptotympana atrata听觉初级神经元和中间神经元的声反应特征和方向灵敏度。这些神经元有基本上相同、并与蚱蝉鸣声的主能峰一致的调谐频率。它们对声强编码的动态范围为阈上0-40 dB,声强每提高10dB神经脉冲发放约增加两个。它们有较好的方向灵敏度,在最佳反应频率处听觉神经元对对侧声源刺激与同侧声源刺激的反应阈差达10—12dB。     

基于频率调制信息的人工耳蜗语音处理算法研究

在传统人工耳蜗连续交叠采样(Continuous Interleaved Sampler,CIS)算法的基础上,提出一种基于精细结构(频率调制信息)的人工耳蜗语音处理算法,在不引入过高频率成分、保证工艺可实现性的前提下,使语音识别率大幅提高。听觉仿真实验的结果表明,与传统的基于时域包络的CIS算法相比,基于精细结构的CIS算法对于元音可懂度的改进可以达到28%;声调的识别率在各种噪声条件下提高20%以上;在一般噪声环境下,辅音和句子的可懂度也分别获得了22.9%和28.3%的改进。     

小型化电谐振人工特异材料研究

详细分析了电谐振人工特异材料设计原理,并结合等效电路模型通过加载等效电感、等效电容和接地等方法,将相同尺寸的工字形结构工作频率从12.21 GHz降到了5.46 GHz,小型化效果明显.该成果不仅对于不同结构人工特异材料小型化设计提供了重要的参考,同时也为设计不同性能、不同工作频率的人工特异材料提供了明确的研究方向和有效的途径.     

蚱蝉听觉中间神经元对声信号特征编码的电生理研究

本文首次报道蚱蝉听觉系统中放电模式不同的两类中间神经元的阈值-频率关系曲线,及它们对声刺激信号的强度与时间特征的编码方式.它们的功能可能分别是简易的声强与时间编码器和声脉冲标记器.     

下肢外骨骼机器人控制的脑电感知方法研究

将外骨骼机器人技术与BCI系统结合起来,使人体具有了外骨骼机器人的一系列优良特性,同时使外骨骼机器人具备了人体的智能。首先,对外骨骼机器人技术与BCI技术的融合进行了可行性分析,说明了该方法的可行性。其次,通过实验采集了六种想象运动的脑电信号,选取了C3、C4通道的脑电信号,并对其进行了去噪处理。然后,对经过预处理的六种想象运动的脑电信号通过小波变换进行了分解,提取了包括小波分解系数和能量系数的脑电信号小波特征。最后,针对所提取的小波特征,采用了最小二乘支持向量机对这六种想象运动模式进行分类处理。     

Place-pitch perception in electrical hearing with post-lingually deafened cochlear implant users

The main goal of this study was to systematically investigate place-pitch perception in electrical hearing and the relative relationship between place-pitch perception ability,speech understanding and musical pitch discrimination by cochlear implant(CI) users.Electrode pitch ranking test was carried out to evaluate the place-pitch perception ability of CI users. Four post-lingually deafened CI users were recruited.They also participated in the speech recognition test and musical pitch discrimination test.Results showed that place pitch were generally ordered from apical to basal electrodes.The apical electrodes were judged lower in pitch than basal electrodes.Large individual difference was found.Comparing pitch and speech performance,the speech recognition result was related to the place-pitch perception ability of CI users,but this relationship was limited by the ceiling effects.However,a correlative relationship was found between musical pitch discrimination result and place-pitch ability of CI users.It indicated that the current signal processing of CI system can provide sufficient information for speech understanding but not for music perception of CI users.To a certain extent,music perception of CI users was determined by their place-pitch abilities.     

Place-pitch discrimination of single- versus dual-electrode stimuli by cochlear implant users (L)

Simultaneous or near-simultaneous activation of adjacent cochlear implant electrodes can produce pitch percepts intermediate to those produced by each electrode separately, thereby increasing the number of place-pitch steps available to cochlear implant listeners. To estimate how many distinct pitches could be generated with simultaneous dual-electrode stimulation, the present study measured place-pitch discrimination thresholds for single- versus dual-electrode stimuli in users of the Clarion CII device. Discrimination thresholds were expressed as the proportion of current directed to the secondary electrode of the dual-electrode pair. For 16 of 17 electrode pairs tested in six subjects, thresholds ranged from 0.11 to 0.64, suggesting that dual-electrode stimuli can produce 2-9 discriminable pitches between the pitches of single electrodes. Some subjects demonstrated a level effect, with better place-pitch discrimination at higher stimulus levels. Equal loudness was achieved with dual-electrode stimuli at net current levels that were similar to or slightly higher than those for single-electrode stimuli.     

Beneficial acoustic speech cues for cochlear implant users with residual acoustic hearing

This study investigated which acoustic cues within the speech signal are responsible for bimodal speech perception benefit. Seven cochlear implant (CI) users with usable residual hearing at low frequencies in the non-implanted ear participated. Sentence tests were performed in near-quiet (some noise on the CI side to reduce scores from ceiling) and in a modulated noise background, with the implant alone and with the addition, in the hearing ear, of one of four types of acoustic signals derived from the same sentences: (1) a complex tone modulated by the fundamental frequency (F0) and amplitude envelope contours; (2) a pure tone modulated by the F0 and amplitude contours; (3) a noise-vocoded signal; (4) unprocessed speech. The modulated tones provided F0 information without spectral shape information, whilst the vocoded signal presented spectral shape information without F0 information. For the group as a whole, only the unprocessed speech condition provided significant benefit over implant-alone scores, in both near-quiet and noise. This suggests that, on average, F0 or spectral cues in isolation provided limited benefit for these subjects in the tested listening conditions, and that the significant benefit observed in the full-signal condition was derived from implantees' use of a combination of these cues.     

Place-pitch manipulations with cochlear implants

Pitch can be conveyed to cochlear implant listeners via both place of excitation and temporal cues. The transmission of place cues may be hampered by several factors, including limitations on the insertion depth and number of implanted electrodes, and the broad current spread produced by monopolar stimulation. The following series of experiments investigate several methods to partially overcome these limitations. Experiment 1 compares two recently published techniques that aim to activate more apical fibers than produced by monopolar or bipolar stimulation of the most apical contacts. The first technique (phantom stimulation) manipulates the current spread by simultaneously stimulating two electrodes with opposite-polarity pulses of different amplitudes. The second technique manipulates the neural spread of excitation by using asymmetric pulses and exploiting the polarity-sensitive properties of auditory nerve fibers. The two techniques yielded similar results and were shown to produce lower place-pitch percepts than stimulation of monopolar and bipolar symmetric pulses. Furthermore, combining these two techniques may be advantageous in a clinical setting. Experiment 2 proposes a method to create place pitches intermediate to those produced by physical electrodes by using charge-balanced asymmetric pulses in bipolar mode with different degrees of asymmetry.     

Voice gender differences and separation of simultaneous talkers in cochlear implant users with residual hearing

Perception of a target voice in the presence of a competing talker, of same or different gender as the target, was investigated in cochlear implant users, in implant-alone and bimodal (acoustic hearing in the non-implanted ear) conditions. Recordings of two male and two female talkers acted as targets and maskers, to investigate whether bimodal benefit increased for different compared to same gender target/maskers due to increased ability to perceive and utilize fundamental frequency and spectral-shape differences. In both listening conditions participants showed benefit of target/masker gender difference. There was an overall bimodal benefit, which was independent of target/masker gender difference.     

Effects of masking noise on vowel and sibilant contrasts in normal-hearing speakers and postlingually deafened cochlear implant users

The role of auditory feedback in speech production was investigated by examining speakers' phonemic contrasts produced under increases in the noise to signal ratio (N/S). Seven cochlear implant users and seven normal-hearing controls pronounced utterances containing the vowels /i/, /u/, /e/ and /ae/ and the sibilants /s/ and /I/ while hearing their speech mixed with noise at seven equally spaced levels between their thresholds of detection and discomfort. Speakers' average vowel duration and SPL generally rose with increasing N/S. Average vowel contrast was initially flat or rising; at higher N/S levels, it fell. A contrast increase is interpreted as reflecting speakers' attempts to maintain clarity under degraded acoustic transmission conditions. As N/S increased, speakers could detect the extent of their phonemic contrasts less effectively, and the competing influence of economy of effort led to contrast decrements. The sibilant contrast was more vulnerable to noise; it decreased over the entire range of increasing N/S for controls and was variable for implant users. The results are interpreted as reflecting the combined influences of a clarity constraint, economy of effort and the effect of masking on achieving auditory phonemic goals-with implant users less able to increase contrasts in noise than controls.     

Pitch perception by cochlear implant subjects

Direct electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve can be used to restore some degree of hearing to the profoundly deaf. Percepts due to electrical stimulation have characteristics corresponding approximately to the acoustic percepts of loudness, pitch, and timbre. To encode speech as a pattern of electrical stimulation, it is necessary to determine the effects of the stimulus parameters on these percepts. The effects of the three basic stimulus parameters of level, repetition rate, and stimulation location on subjects' percepts were examined. Pitch difference limens arising from changes in rate of stimulation increase as the stimulating rate increases, up to a saturation point of between 200 and 1000 pulses per second. Changes in pitch due to electrode selection depend upon the subject, but generally agree with a tonotopic organization of the human cochlea. Further, the discriminability of such place-pitch percepts seems to be dependent on the degree of current spread in the cochlea. The effect of stimulus level on perceived pitch is significant but is highly dependent on the individual tested. The results of these experiments are discussed in terms of their impact on speech-processing strategies and their relevance to acoustic pitch perception.     

Forward-masked spatial tuning curves in cochlear implant users

Forward-masked psychophysical spatial tuning curves (fmSTCs) were measured in twelve cochlear-implant subjects, six using bipolar stimulation (Nucleus devices) and six using monopolar stimulation (Clarion devices). fmSTCs were measured at several probe levels on a middle electrode using a fixed-level probe stimulus and variable-level maskers. The average fmSTC slopes obtained in subjects using bipolar stimulation (3.7 dBmm) were approximately three times steeper than average slopes obtained in subjects using monopolar stimulation (1.2 dBmm). Average spatial bandwidths were about half as wide for subjects with bipolar stimulation (2.6 mm) than for subjects with monopolar stimulation (4.6 mm). None of the tuning curve characteristics changed significantly with probe level. fmSTCs replotted in terms of acoustic frequency, using Greenwood's [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 33, 1344-1356 (1961)] frequency-to-place equation, were compared with forward-masked psychophysical tuning curves obtained previously from normal-hearing and hearing-impaired acoustic listeners. The average tuning characteristics of fmSTCs in electric hearing were similar to the broad tuning observed in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired acoustic listeners at high stimulus levels. This suggests that spatial tuning is not the primary factor limiting speech perception in many cochlear implant users.     

Comparing spatial tuning curves, spectral ripple resolution, and speech perception in cochlear implant users

Spectral ripple discrimination thresholds were measured in 15 cochlear-implant users with broadband (350-5600 Hz) and octave-band noise stimuli. The results were compared with spatial tuning curve (STC) bandwidths previously obtained from the same subjects. Spatial tuning curve bandwidths did not correlate significantly with broadband spectral ripple discrimination thresholds but did correlate significantly with ripple discrimination thresholds when the rippled noise was confined to an octave-wide passband, centered on the STC's probe electrode frequency allocation. Ripple discrimination thresholds were also measured for octave-band stimuli in four contiguous octaves, with center frequencies from 500 Hz to 4000 Hz. Substantial variations in thresholds with center frequency were found in individuals, but no general trends of increasing or decreasing resolution from apex to base were observed in the pooled data. Neither ripple nor STC measures correlated consistently with speech measures in noise and quiet in the sample of subjects in this study. Overall, the results suggest that spectral ripple discrimination measures provide a reasonable measure of spectral resolution that correlates well with more direct, but more time-consuming, measures of spectral resolution, but that such measures do not always provide a clear and robust predictor of performance in speech perception tasks.     

Sensitivity to binaural timing in bilateral cochlear implant users

Various measures of binaural timing sensitivity were made in three bilateral cochlear implant users, who had demonstrated moderate-to-good interaural time delay (ITD) sensitivity at 100 pulses-per-second (pps). Overall, ITD thresholds increased at higher pulse rates, lower levels, and shorter durations, although intersubject differences were evident. Monaural rate-discrimination thresholds, using the same stimulation parameters, showed more substantial elevation than ITDs with increased rate. ITD sensitivity with 6000 pps stimuli, amplitude-modulated at 100 Hz, was similar to that with unmodulated pulse trains at 100 pps, but at 200 and 300 Hz performance was poorer than with unmodulated signals. Measures of sensitivity to binaural beats with unmodulated pulse-trains showed that all three subjects could use time-varying ITD cues at 100 pps, but not 300 pps, even though static ITD sensitivity was relatively unaffected over that range. The difference between static and dynamic ITD thresholds is discussed in terms of relative contributions from initial and later arriving cues, which was further examined in an experiment using two-pulse stimuli as a function of interpulse separation. In agreement with the binaural-beat data, findings from that experiment showed poor discrimination of ITDs on the second pulse when the interval between pulses was reduced to a few milliseconds.