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1.
Bilateral cochlear implant (BiCI) users gain an advantage in noisy situations from a second implant, but their bilateral performance falls short of normal hearing listeners. Channel interactions due to overlapping electrical fields between electrodes can impair speech perception, but its role in limiting binaural hearing performance has not been well characterized. To address the issue, binaural masking level differences (BMLD) for a 125 Hz tone in narrowband noise were measured using a pair of pitch-matched electrodes while simultaneously presenting the same masking noise to adjacent electrodes, representing a more realistic stimulation condition compared to prior studies that used only a single electrode pair. For five subjects, BMLDs averaged 8.9 ± 1.0 dB (mean ± s.e.) in single electrode pairs but dropped to 2.1 ± 0.4 dB when presenting noise on adjacent masking electrodes, demonstrating a negative impact of the additional maskers. Removing the masking noise from only the pitch-matched electrode pair not only lowered thresholds but also resulted in smaller BMLDs. The degree of channel interaction estimated from auditory nerve evoked potentials in three subjects was significantly and negatively correlated with BMLD. The data suggest that if the amount of channel interactions can be reduced, BiCI users may experience some performance improvements related to binaural hearing.  相似文献   

2.
The ability to perceive important features of electrical stimulation varies across stimulation sites within a multichannel implant. The aim of this study was to optimize speech processor MAPs for bilateral implant users by identifying and removing sites with poor psychophysical performance. The psychophysical assessment involved amplitude-modulation detection with and without a masker, and a channel interaction measure quantified as the elevation in modulation detection thresholds in the presence of the masker. Three experimental MAPs were created on an individual-subject basis using data from one of the three psychophysical measures. These experimental MAPs improved the mean psychophysical acuity across the electrode array and provided additional advantages such as increasing spatial separations between electrodes and/or preserving frequency resolution. All 8 subjects showed improved speech recognition in noise with one or more experimental MAPs over their everyday-use clinical MAP. For most subjects, phoneme and sentence recognition in noise were significantly improved by a dichotic experimental MAP that provided better mean psychophysical acuity, a balanced distribution of selected stimulation sites, and preserved frequency resolution. The site-selection strategies serve as useful tools for evaluating the importance of psychophysical acuities needed for good speech recognition in implant users.  相似文献   

3.
Five bilateral cochlear implant users were tested for their localization abilities and speech understanding in noise, for both monaural and binaural listening conditions. They also participated in lateralization tasks to assess the impact of variations in interaural time delays (ITDs) and interaural level differences (ILDs) for electrical pulse trains under direct computer control. The localization task used pink noise bursts presented from an eight-loudspeaker array spanning an arc of approximately 108 degrees in front of the listeners at ear level (0-degree elevation). Subjects showed large benefits from bilateral device use compared to either side alone. Typical root-mean-square (rms) averaged errors across all eight loudspeakers in the array were about 10 degrees for bilateral device use and ranged from 20 degrees to 60 degrees using either ear alone. Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured for sentences presented from directly in front of the listeners (0 degrees) in spectrally matching speech-weighted noise at either 0 degrees, +90 degrees or -90 degrees for four subjects out of five tested who could perform the task. For noise to either side, bilateral device use showed a substantial benefit over unilateral device use when noise was ipsilateral to the unilateral device. This was primarily because of monaural head-shadow effects, which resulted in robust SRT improvements (P<0.001) of about 4 to 5 dB when ipsilateral and contralateral noise positions were compared. The additional benefit of using both ears compared to the shadowed ear (i.e., binaural unmasking) was only 1 or 2 dB and less robust (P = 0.04). Results from the lateralization studies showed consistently good sensitivity to ILDs; better than the smallest level adjustment available in the implants (0.17 dB) for some subjects. Sensitivity to ITDs was moderate on the other hand, typically of the order of 100 micros. ITD sensitivity deteriorated rapidly when stimulation rates for unmodulated pulse-trains increased above a few hundred Hz but at 800 pps showed sensitivity comparable to 50-pps pulse-trains when a 50-Hz modulation was applied. In our opinion, these results clearly demonstrate important benefits are available from bilateral implantation, both for localizing sounds (in quiet) and for listening in noise when signal and noise sources are spatially separated. The data do indicate, however, that effects of interaural timing cues are weaker than those from interaural level cues and according to our psychophysical findings rely on the availability of low-rate information below a few hundred Hz.  相似文献   

4.
Selected subjects with bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) showed excellent horizontal localization of wide-band sounds in previous studies. The current study investigated localization cues used by two bilateral CI subjects with outstanding localization ability. The first experiment studied localization for sounds of different spectral and temporal composition in the free field. Localization of wide-band noise was unaffected by envelope pulsation, suggesting that envelope-interaural time difference (ITD) cues contributed little. Low-pass noise was not localizable for one subject and localization depended on the cutoff frequency for the other which suggests that ITDs played only a limited role. High-pass noise with slow envelope changes could be localized, in line with contribution of interaural level differences (ILDs). In experiment 2, processors of one subject were raised above the head to void the head shadow. If they were spaced at ear distance, ITDs allowed discrimination of left from right for a pulsed wide-band noise. Good localization was observed with a head-sized cardboard inserted between processors, showing the reliance on ILDs. Experiment 3 investigated localization in virtual space with manipulated ILDs and ITDs. Localization shifted predominantly for offsets in ILDs, even for pulsed high-pass noise. This confirms that envelope ITDs contributed little and that localization with bilateral CIs was dominated by ILDs.  相似文献   

5.
A new method to code the speech envelope in continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) processors for cochlear implants is proposed. In this enhanced envelope, the rapid adaptation seen in the response of auditory nerves to sound stimuli is incorporated. Two strategies, one using the standard envelope (CIS) and one using the enhanced envelope (EECIS), were tested perceptually with six postlingually deafened users of the LAURA cochlear implant. The tests included identification of stop consonants in three different vowel contexts and monosyllabic consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. Significant improvements in correct identification scores were observed for stop consonants in intervocalic /a/ context (p = 0.026): average results varied from 46% correct for CIS to 55% for EECIS. This improvement was mainly due to the better transmission of place of articulation. The differences in identification scores for stop consonants in /i/ and /u/ context were not significant. The identification scores for the medial vowels of the CVC words were significantly higher when the EECIS strategy was used: average results increased from 39% correct to 46% correct (p = 0.018). No significant differences were observed between the results for initial and final consonants of the CVC words. The present results demonstrate that the inclusion of the rapid adaptation in the speech processing for cochlear implants can improve speech intelligibility.  相似文献   

6.
A binaural unmasking of a tone component that is present in an amplitude-time noise envelope of a high-frequency signal is studied. The signal has the form of a sinusoidal carrier of frequency 2000–5000 Hz amplitude modulated by a low-frequency signal. The modulating function is a mixture of a 300-Hz tone (interaurally inphase or antiphase) and a dichotic masking noise within 0–400 Hz, this mixture being subjected to a half-wave linear rectification. The listener has to detect the rhythmic component in the modulating noise function. It is shown that, under the aforementioned conditions, the binaural difference in masking levels grows up to 25 dB with increasing carrier frequency but drastically decreases in the case of a masking of the low-frequency part of the basilar membrane in the vicinity of 300 Hz. The lateralization based on the interaural phase of a 100% amplitude modulation by a 300-Hz tone at a carrier frequency within 2000 to 5000 Hz also drastically decreases (in our experiments) when the low-frequency part of the basilar membrane is masked.  相似文献   

7.
The hypothesis was investigated that selectively increasing the discrimination of low-frequency information (below 2600 Hz) by altering the frequency-to-electrode allocation would improve speech perception by cochlear implantees. Two experimental conditions were compared, both utilizing ten electrode positions selected based on maximal discrimination. A fixed frequency range (200-10513 Hz) was allocated either relatively evenly across the ten electrodes, or so that nine of the ten positions were allocated to the frequencies up to 2600 Hz. Two additional conditions utilizing all available electrode positions (15-18 electrodes) were assessed: one with each subject's usual frequency-to-electrode allocation; and the other using the same analysis filters as the other experimental conditions. Seven users of the Nucleus CI22 implant wore processors mapped with each experimental condition for 2-week periods away from the laboratory, followed by assessment of perception of words in quiet and sentences in noise. Performance with both ten-electrode maps was significantly poorer than with both full-electrode maps on at least one measure. Performance with the map allocating nine out of ten electrodes to low frequencies was equivalent to that with the full-electrode maps for vowel perception and sentences in noise, but was worse for consonant perception. Performance with the evenly allocated ten-electrode map was equivalent to that with the full-electrode maps for consonant perception, but worse for vowel perception and sentences in noise. Comparison of the two full-electrode maps showed that subjects could fully adapt to frequency shifts up to ratio changes of 1.3, given 2 weeks' experience. Future research is needed to investigate whether speech perception may be improved by the manipulation of frequency-to-electrode allocation in maps which have a full complement of electrodes in Nucleus implants.  相似文献   

8.
Binaural speech intelligibility in noise for hearing-impaired listeners   总被引:2,自引:0,他引:2  
The effect of head-induced interaural time delay (ITD) and interaural level differences (ILD) on binaural speech intelligibility in noise was studied for listeners with symmetrical and asymmetrical sensorineural hearing losses. The material, recorded with a KEMAR manikin in an anechoic room, consisted of speech, presented from the front (0 degree), and noise, presented at azimuths of 0 degree, 30 degrees, and 90 degrees. Derived noise signals, containing either only ITD or only ILD, were generated using a computer. For both groups of subjects, speech-reception thresholds (SRT) for sentences in noise were determined as a function of: (1) noise azimuth, (2) binaural cue, and (3) an interaural difference in overall presentation level, simulating the effect of a monaural hearing acid. Comparison of the mean results with corresponding data obtained previously from normal-hearing listeners shows that the hearing impaired have a 2.5 dB higher SRT in noise when both speech and noise are presented from the front, and 2.6-5.1 dB less binaural gain when the noise azimuth is changed from 0 degree to 90 degrees. The gain due to ILD varies among the hearing-impaired listeners between 0 dB and normal values of 7 dB or more. It depends on the high-frequency hearing loss at the side presented with the most favorable signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. The gain due to ITD is nearly normal for the symmetrically impaired (4.2 dB, compared with 4.7 dB for the normal hearing), but only 2.5 dB in the case of asymmetrical impairment. When ITD is introduced in noise already containing ILD, the resulting gain is 2-2.5 dB for all groups. The only marked effect of the interaural difference in overall presentation level is a reduction of the gain due to ILD when the level at the ear with the better S/N ratio is decreased. This implies that an optimal monaural hearing aid (with a moderate gain) will hardly interfere with unmasking through ITD, while it may increase the gain due to ILD by preventing or diminishing threshold effects.  相似文献   

9.
When speech is in competition with interfering sources in rooms, monaural indicators of intelligibility fail to take account of the listener's abilities to separate target speech from interfering sounds using the binaural system. In order to incorporate these segregation abilities and their susceptibility to reverberation, Lavandier and Culling [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 127, 387-399 (2010)] proposed a model which combines effects of better-ear listening and binaural unmasking. A computationally efficient version of this model is evaluated here under more realistic conditions that include head shadow, multiple stationary noise sources, and real-room acoustics. Three experiments are presented in which speech reception thresholds were measured in the presence of one to three interferers using real-room listening over headphones, simulated by convolving anechoic stimuli with binaural room impulse-responses measured with dummy-head transducers in five rooms. Without fitting any parameter of the model, there was close correspondence between measured and predicted differences in threshold across all tested conditions. The model's components of better-ear listening and binaural unmasking were validated both in isolation and in combination. The computational efficiency of this prediction method allows the generation of complex "intelligibility maps" from room designs.  相似文献   

10.
Bilateral cochlear implant (BI-CI) recipients achieve high word recognition scores in quiet listening conditions. Still, there is a substantial drop in speech recognition performance when there is reverberation and more than one interferers. BI-CI users utilize information from just two directional microphones placed on opposite sides of the head in a so-called independent stimulation mode. To enhance the ability of BI-CI users to communicate in noise, the use of two computationally inexpensive multi-microphone adaptive noise reduction strategies exploiting information simultaneously collected by the microphones associated with two behind-the-ear (BTE) processors (one per ear) is proposed. To this end, as many as four microphones are employed (two omni-directional and two directional) in each of the two BTE processors (one per ear). In the proposed two-microphone binaural strategies, all four microphones (two behind each ear) are being used in a coordinated stimulation mode. The hypothesis is that such strategies combine spatial information from all microphones to form a better representation of the target than that made available with only a single input. Speech intelligibility is assessed in BI-CI listeners using IEEE sentences corrupted by up to three steady speech-shaped noise sources. Results indicate that multi-microphone strategies improve speech understanding in single- and multi-noise source scenarios.  相似文献   

11.
After successful cochlear implantation in one ear, some patients continue to use a hearing aid at the contralateral ear. They report an improved reception of speech, especially in noise, as well as a better perception of music when the hearing aid and cochlear implant are used in this bimodal combination. Some individuals in this bimodal patient group also report the impression of an improved localization ability. Similar experiences are reported by the group of bilateral cochlear implantees. In this study, a survey of 11 bimodally and 4 bilaterally equipped cochlear implant users was carried out to assess localization ability. Individuals in the bimodal implant group were all provided with the same type of hearing aid in the opposite ear, and subjects in the bilateral implant group used cochlear implants of the same manufacturer on each ear. Subjects adjusted the spot of a computer-controlled laser-pointer to the perceived direction of sound incidence in the frontal horizontal plane by rotating a trackball. Two subjects of the bimodal group who had substantial residual hearing showed localization ability in the bimodal configuration, whereas using each single device only the subject with better residual hearing was able to discriminate the side of sound origin. Five other subjects with more pronounced hearing loss displayed an ability for side discrimination through the use of bimodal aids, while four of them were already able to discriminate the side with a single device. Of the bilateral cochlear implant group one subject showed localization accuracy close to that of normal hearing subjects. This subject was also able to discriminate the side of sound origin using the first implanted device alone. The other three bilaterally equipped subjects showed limited localization ability using both devices. Among them one subject demonstrated a side-discrimination ability using only the first implanted device.  相似文献   

12.
The binaural system is well-known for its sluggish response to changes in the interaural parameters to which it is sensitive. Theories of binaural unmasking have suggested that detection of signals in noise is mediated by detection of differences in interaural correlation. If these theories are correct, improvements in the intelligibility of speech in favorable binaural conditions is most likely mediated by spectro-temporal variations in interaural correlation of the stimulus which mirror the spectro-temporal amplitude modulations of the speech. However, binaural sluggishness should limit the temporal resolution of the representation of speech recovered by this means. The present study tested this prediction in two ways. First, listeners' masked discrimination thresholds for ascending vs descending pure-tone arpeggios were measured as a function of rate of frequency change in the NoSo and NoSpi binaural configurations. Three-tone arpeggios were presented repeatedly and continuously for 1.6 s, masked by a 1.6-s burst of noise. In a two-interval task, listeners determined the interval in which the arpeggios were ascending. The results showed a binaural advantage of 12-14 dB for NoSpi at 3.3 arpeggios per s (arp/s), which reduced to 3-5 dB at 10.4 arp/s. This outcome confirmed that the discrimination of spectro-temporal patterns in noise is susceptible to the effects of binaural sluggishness. Second, listeners' masked speech-reception thresholds were measured in speech-shaped noise using speech which was 1, 1.5, and 2 times the original articulation rate. The articulation rate was increased using a phase-vocoder technique which increased all the modulation frequencies in the speech without altering its pitch. Speech-reception thresholds were, on average, 5.2 dB lower for the NoSpi than for the NoSo configuration, at the original articulation rate. This binaural masking release was reduced to 2.8 dB when the articulation rate was doubled, but the most notable effect was a 6-8 dB increase in thresholds with articulation rate for both configurations. These results suggest that higher modulation frequencies in masked signals cannot be temporally resolved by the binaural system, but that the useful modulation frequencies in speech are sufficiently low (<5 Hz) that they are invulnerable to the effects of binaural sluggishness, even at elevated articulation rates.  相似文献   

13.
A single-channel algorithm is proposed for noise reduction in cochlear implants. The proposed algorithm is based on subspace principles and projects the noisy speech vector onto "signal" and "noise" subspaces. An estimate of the clean signal is made by retaining only the components in the signal subspace. The performance of the subspace reduction algorithm is evaluated using 14 subjects wearing the Clarion device. Results indicated that the subspace algorithm produced significant improvements in sentence recognition scores compared to the subjects' daily strategy, at least in stationary noise. Further work is needed to extend the subspace algorithm to nonstationary noise environments.  相似文献   

14.
This study examined the effect of noise on the identification of four synthetic speech continua (/ra/-/la/, /wa/-/ja/, /i/-/u/, and say-stay) by adults with cochlea implants (CIs) and adults with normal-hearing (NH) sensitivity in quiet and noise. Significant group-by-SNR interactions were found for endpoint identification accuracy for all continua except /i/-/u/. The CI listeners showed the least NH-like identification functions for the /ra/-/la/ and /wa/-/ja/ continua. In a second experiment, NH adults identified four- and eight-band cochlear implant stimulations of the four continua, to examine whether group differences in frequency selectivity could account for the group differences in the first experiment. Number of bands and SNR interacted significantly for /ra/-/la/, /wa/-/ja/, and say-stay endpoint identification; strongest effects were found for the /ra/-/la/ and say-stay continua. Results suggest that the speech features that are most vulnerable to misperception in noise by listeners with CIs are those whose acoustic cues are rapidly changing spectral patterns, like the formant transitions in the /wa/-/ja/ and /ra/-/la/ continua. However, the group differences in the first experiment cannot be wholly attributable to frequency selectivity differences, as the number of bands in the second experiment affected performance differently than suggested by group differences in the first experiment.  相似文献   

15.
Experiments were conducted with a single, bilateral cochlear implant user to examine interaural level and time-delay cues that putatively underlie the design and efficacy of bilateral implant systems. The subject's two implants were of different types but custom equipment allowed presentation of controlled bilateral stimuli, particularly those with specified interaural time difference (ITD) and interaural level difference (ILD) cues. A lateralization task was used to measure the effect of these cues on the perceived location of the sensations elicited. For trains of fixed-amplitude, biphasic current pulses at 100 pps, the subject demonstrated sensitivity to an ITD of 300 micros, providing evidence of access to binaural information. The choice of bilateral electrode pair greatly influenced ITD sensitivity, suggesting that electrode pairings are likely to be an important consideration in the effort to provide binaural advantages. The selection of bilateral electrode pairs showing sensitivity to ITD was partially aided by comparisons of the pitch elicited by individual electrodes in each ear (when stimulated alone with fixed-amplitude current pulses at 813 pps): specifically, interaural electrodes with similar pitches were more likely (but not certain) to show ITD sensitivity. Significant changes in lateral position occurred with specific electrode pairs. With five bilateral electrode pairs of 14 tested, ITDs of 300 and 600 micros moved an auditory image significantly from right to left. With these same pairs, ILD changes of approximately 11% of the dynamic range (in microApp) moved an auditory image from the far left to the far right-significantly farther than the nine pairs not showing significant ITD sensitivity. However, even these nine pairs did show response changes as a function of the interaural (or confounding monaural) level cue. Overall, insofar as the access to bilateral cues demonstrated herein generalizes to other subjects, it provides hope that the normal binaural advantages for speech recognition and sound localization can be made available to bilateral implant users.  相似文献   

16.
In this paper, two speech enhancement algorithms (SEAs) based on spectral subtraction (SS) principle have been evaluated for bilateral cochlear implant (BCI) users. Specifically, dual-channel noise power spectral estimation algorithm using power spectral densities (PSD) and cross power spectral density (CPSD) of the observed signals was studied. The enhanced speech signals were obtained using either Dual Channel Non Linear Spectral Subtraction ‘DC-NLSS’ or Dual-Channel Multi-Band Spectral Subtraction ‘DC-MBSS’ algorithms. For performance evaluation, some objective speech assessment tests relying on Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) score and speech Itakura-Saito (IS) distortion measurement were performed to fix the optimal number of frequency band needed in DC-MBSS algorithm. In order to evaluate the speech intelligibility, subjective listening tests were assessed with 50 normal hearing listeners using a specific BCI simulator and with three deafened BCI patients. Experimental results, obtained using French Lafon database corrupted by an additive babble noise at different Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNR), showed that DC-MBSS algorithm improves speech understanding better than DC-NLSS algorithm for single and multiple interfering noise sources.  相似文献   

17.
Coherence based methods have been successfully applied to dual-microphone noise reduction systems. These techniques showed good results when noise signals on two microphones were uncorrelated, but their performance decreased with correlated noises. It could be improved when the cross power spectral density (CPSD) of received noises is available.In this paper, an improved minimum tracking (IMT) technique for noise CPSD estimation was proposed. The performance of this technique was compared to two other noise CPSD estimators based on voice activity detection (VAD) and minimum tracking (MT) approaches. Evaluation was performed at four signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) and two interfering noise source configurations.Results showed a superiority of the IMT approach in terms of low computing time and quality indicated by the perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) scores. Then, subjective listening tests were carried out with 50 normal hearing listeners using a specific bilateral cochlear implant (BCI) simulator and utilizing the French Lafon database corrupted by additional babble noise. Results obtained with the proposed technique were better than the two previously mentioned noise CPSD estimators.  相似文献   

18.
This study examines how simultaneous masking of a tone by bandlimited noise may be affected by nonlinear interactions among spectral components of the noise. Simultaneous masking patterns (signal threshold versus signal frequency) were obtained with three types of maskers: (A) a narrow-band noise, 50 Hz wide with variable center frequency fv, (B) pairs of narrow-band noises, each band 50 Hz wide with center frequencies fl and fu, and (C) wide-band noise formed by filling the spectral gap between the two bands of (B). The variable frequency fv was set to 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 kHz: fl was fixed at 1.0 kHz, and fu had values of 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 kHz. In most conditions, the two-band maskers and the wideband maskers produced more masking than would be predicted from the masking produced by the single narrow-band maskers. For certain signal frequencies below the maskers, adding noise to fill the spectral gap of the two-band masker actually resulted in a 3- to 15-dB release from masking. These results reveal factors that may operate to confound modern measures of frequency selectivity.  相似文献   

19.
为提高复杂场景下的听障患者的语言理解度,本文提出一种仿人耳听觉的助听器双耳声源定位算法。算法首先借鉴耳蜗分频特性和听觉掩蔽特性,将声音信号进行多通道分解,并提取人耳敏感频带的信号进行双耳时间差(Interaural Time Difference,ITD)估计;然后基于人耳哈斯效应,提取有效的ITD信息;最后采用头相关模型,将ITD转化为声源方向信息。同时,为了改善混响和多干扰声场景下的声源定位能力,本文提出一种多通道的加权联合策略。仿真和场景测试实验表明,算法的抗干扰性强,定位精度高。而且,在7名受试者的理解度测试中,同现有的助听器增强算法相比,结合定位算法的语音增强算法达到3~5 dB的性能改善。  相似文献   

20.
梁瑞宇  周健  王青云  奚吉  赵力 《声学学报》2015,40(3):446-454
为提高复杂场景下的听障患者的语言理解度,本文提出一种仿人耳听觉的助听器双耳声源定位算法。算法首先借鉴耳蜗分频特性和听觉掩蔽特性,将声音信号进行多通道分解,并提取人耳敏感频带的信号进行双耳时间差(Interaural Time Difference,ITD)估计;然后基于人耳哈斯效应,提取有效的ITD信息;最后采用头相关模型,将ITD转化为声源方向信息。同时,为了改善混响和多干扰声场景下的声源定位能力,本文提出一种多通道的加权联合策略。仿真和场景测试实验表明,算法的抗干扰性强,定位精度高。而且,在7名受试者的理解度测试中,同现有的助听器增强算法相比,结合定位算法的语音增强算法达到3~5dB的性能改善。  相似文献   

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