1,720,985 research outputs found
Speech sounds perception in children who use cochlear implants and contralateral hearing aids
No full textTemporal fine structure processing, pitch and speech perception in cochlear implant recipients
Get PDFCochlear implant (CI) recipients usually complain about poor speech understanding in the presence of noise. Indeed, they generally show ceiling effects for understanding sentences presented in quiet, but their scores decrease drastically when testing in the presence of competing noise. One important aspect that contributes to speech perception skills, especially when listening in a fluctuating background, has been described as Temporal Fine Structure (TFS) processing. TFS cues are more dominant in conveying Low Frequency (LF) signals linked in particular to Fundamental Frequency (F0), which is crucial for linguistic and musical perception.
A§E Harmonic Intonation (HI) and Disharmonic Intonation (DI) are tests of pitch perception in the LF domain and their outcomes are believed to depend on the availability of TFS cues. Previous findings indicated that the DI test provided more differential LF pitch perception outcomes in that it reflected phase locking and TFS processing capacities of the ear, whereas the HI test provided information on its place coding capacity as well. Previous HI/DI studies were mainly done in adult population showing abnormal pitch perception outcomes in CI recipients and there was no or limited data in paediatric population as well as HI/DI outcomes in relation to
speech perception outcomes in the presence of noise.
One of the primary objectives of this thesis has been to investigate LF pitch perception skills in a group of pediatric CI recipients in comparison to normal hearing (NH) children. Another objective was to introduce a new assessment tool, the Italian STARR test which was based on measurement of speech perception using a roving-level adaptive method where the presentation
level of both speech and noise signals varied across sentences. The STARR test attempts to reflect a better representation of real world listening conditions where background noise is usually present and speech intensity varies according to vocal capacity as well as the distance of the speaker. The Italian STARR outcomes in NH adults were studied to produce normative data,
as well as to evaluate interlist variability and learning effects. Finally, LF pitch perception outcomes linked to availability of TFS were investigated in a group of adult CI recipients including bimodal users in relation to speech perception, in particular Italian STARR outcomes.
Results were interesting: Although the majority of CI recipient children showed abnormal outcomes for A§E, their scores were considerably better than in the adult CI users. Age had a statistically significant effect on performance in both children and adults; younger children and older adults tended to show poorer performance. Similarly, CI recipient adults (even the better
performers) showed abnormal STARR outcomes in comparison to NH subjects and group differences were statistically significant. The duration of profound deafness before implantation had a significant effect on STARR performance. On the other hand, the significant effect of CI thresholds re-emphasized the sensitivity of the test to lower level speech which a CI user can
face very often during everyday life. Analysis revealed statistically significant correlations between HI/DI and STARR performance. Moreover, contralateral hearing aid users showed significant bimodal benefit for both HI/DI and STARR tests. Overall findings confirmed the usefulness of evaluating both LF pitch and speech perception in order to track changes in TFS sensitivity for CI recipients over time and across different listening conditions which might be provided by future technological advances as well as to study individual differences
Speech sounds perception in children who use cochlear implants and contralateral hearing aids
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Speech reception in noise using roving-adaptive test technique (Italian starr test) in adults with AB clearvoice technology
No full textno abstract availabl
use of visual gestrural channel in paediatric cochlear implant users with associated disabilities
No full textTemporal fine structure processing, pitch and speech perception in adult cochlear implant recipients
No full textObjectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the link between Temporal Fine Structure (TFS) processing, pitch and speech perception performance in adult cochlear implant (CI) recipients, including bimodal listeners who may benefit better low frequency (LF) temporal coding in the contralateral ear. Design: The study participants were 43 adult CI recipients (23 unilateral, 6 bilateral, 14 bimodal listeners). Two new LF pitch perception tests - Harmonic Intonation (HI) and Disharmonic Intonation (DI) - were used to evaluate TFS sensitivity. HI and DI were designed to estimate a difference limen for discrimination of tone changes based on harmonic or inharmonic pitch glides. Speech perception was assessed using the newly developed Italian STARR test where sentences relevant to everyday contexts were presented at low, medium and high levels in a fluctuating background noise in order to estimate a Speech Reception Threshold (SRT). Results: Although TFS and STARR performances in the majority of CI recipients were much poorer than those of hearing people reported in the literature, a considerable inter-subject variability was observed. For CI listeners, median Just Noticeable Differences were 27.0 Hz and 147.0 Hz for HI and DI respectively. HI outcomes were significantly better than those for DI. Median STARR score was 14.8 dB. Better performers with SRTs less than 20 dB had a median score of 8.6 dB. A significant effect of age was observed for both HI/DI tests, suggesting that TFS sensitivity tended to worsen with increasing age. CI pure tone thresholds and duration of profound deafness were significantly correlated with STARR performance. Bimodal users showed significantly better TFS and STARR performance for bimodal listening than for their CI only condition. Median bimodal gains were 33.0 Hz for the HI test and 95.0 Hz for the DI test. DI outcomes in bimodal users revealed a significant correlation with unaided hearing thresholds for octave frequencies lower than 1000 Hz. Median STARR scores were 17.3 versus 8.1 dB for CI only and bimodal listening respectively. STARR performance was significantly correlated with HI findings for CI listeners and with those of DI for bimodal listeners. Conclusions: LF pitch perception was found to be abnormal in the majority of adult CI recipients, confirming poor TFS processing of CIs. Similarly, the STARR findings reflected a common performance deterioration with the HI/DI tests, suggesting the cause probably being a lack of access to TFS information. Contralateral hearing aid users obtained a remarkable bimodal benefit for all tests. Such results highlighted the importance of TFS cues for challenging speech perception and the relevance to everyday listening conditions. HI/DI and STARR tests show promise for gaining insights into how TFS and speech perception are being limited and may guide the customization of CI program parameters and support the fine tuning of bimodal listening
Adaptation of the STARR test for adult Italian population: a speech test for a realistic estimate in real-life listening conditions
No full textObjectives: To introduce the Italian adaptation of the STARR test based on a roving-level adaptive method to mimic challenging real-life listening conditions for use in people with auditory prostheses. Design: Normative data were collected and interlist-variability, as well as learning effects, were investigated using a within-subject design with repeated measures. Study sample: A group of 32 normal-hearing (NH) adults participated in the study. Results: The average speech reception threshold (SRT) for NH subjects was 8.4 dB SNR. The variability of mean SRTs across test lists was relatively small ( 1 dB for all test lists). The statistically significant differences between lists were eliminated after applying correction factors. On the basis of variability for the corrected SRTs within each subject, a difference of 2.8 dB in SRT was meaningful for outcome comparisons using one test list per condition and 2 dB using two lists per condition. Statistical analysis did not show any significant learning effects. Conclusions: Findings in NH listeners suggested that the Italian STARR test could be a promising supplement to existing speech assessment tools. Further studies in populations with hearing impairment could contribute to cross-language studies
One-year results of the banded neural response imaging study
No full textObjective: To investigate the relationship between single-channel and banded neural response imaging (NRI) responses and to evaluate whether banded NRI measurements are better correlated to fitting parameters than single-channel NRI measurements
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