1,720,970 research outputs found
Dataset for Electro-Haptic Stimulation Enhances Speech Recognition in Spatially Separated Noise for Cochlear Implant Users
No full textThis dataset supports the publication: Mark Fletcher, Haoheng Song, & Samuel Perry (2020). Electro-Haptic Stimulation Enhances Speech Recognition in Spatially Separated Noise for Cochlear Implant Users. Scientific Reports
This dataset contains the CSV file titled "CISpatialRelease_Data.csv". This file contains speech reception thresholds for each experimental condition and each participant.
Date of data collection: 2019-06-01 - 2019-09-15
All data was collected at the University of Southampton, U.K.
The experimental protocol was approved by the University of Southampton Ethics Committee (ERGO ID: 48820) and the UK National Health Service Research Ethics Service (Integrated Research Application System ID: 265606). All research was performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.</span
Dataset for Enhanced Pitch Discrimination for Cochlear Implant Users with a New Haptic Neuroprosthetic
No full textDataset for Enhanced Pitch Discrimination for Cochlear Implant Users with a New Haptic Neuroprosthetic in Scientific Reports. In the CSV file attached, pitch discrimination thresholds for each experimental condition and each participant.</span
Dataset for: Sensitivity to haptic sound-localisation cues
No full textThis dataset supports the publication: Fletcher, Mark, Zgheib, Jana & Perry, Samuel (2020). Haptic sound-localisation for use in cochlear implant and hearing-aid users. Scientific Reports.</span
Using the mosaicOne electro-haptic device to improve pitch perception in cochlear implant users
No full textEnhanced pitch discrimination for cochlear implant users with a new haptic neuroprosthetic
No full textThe cochlear implant (CI) is the most widely used neuroprosthesis, recovering hearing for more than half a million severely-to-profoundly hearing-impaired people. However, CIs still have significant limitations, with users having severely impaired pitch perception. Pitch is critical to speech understanding (particularly in noise), to separating different sounds in complex acoustic environments, and to music enjoyment. In recent decades, researchers have attempted to overcome shortcomings in CIs by improving implant technology and surgical techniques, but with limited success. In the current study, we take a new approach of providing missing pitch information through haptic stimulation on the forearm, using our new mosaicOne_B device. The mosaicOne_B extracts pitch information in real-time and presents it via 12 motors that are arranged in ascending pitch along the forearm, with each motor representing a different pitch. In normal-hearing subjects listening to CI simulated audio, we showed that participants were able to discriminate pitch differences at a similar performance level to that achieved by normal-hearing listeners. Furthermore, the device was shown to be highly robust to background noise. This enhanced pitch discrimination has the potential to significantly improve music perception, speech recognition, and speech prosody perception in CI users.</p
Electro-haptic stimulation enhances speech recognition in spatially separated noise for cochlear implant users
No full textHundreds of thousands of profoundly hearing-impaired people perceive sounds through electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve using a cochlear implant (CI). However, CI users are often poor at understanding speech in noisy environments and separating sounds that come from different locations. We provided missing speech and spatial hearing cues through haptic stimulation to augment the electrical CI signal. After just 30 min of training, we found this “electro-haptic” stimulation substantially improved speech recognition in multi-talker noise when the speech and noise came from different locations. Our haptic stimulus was delivered to the wrists at an intensity that can be produced by a compact, low-cost, wearable device. These findings represent a significant step towards the production of a non-invasive neuroprosthetic that can improve CI users’ ability to understand speech in realistic noisy environments.</p
Sensitivity to haptic sound-localization cues at different body locations
No full textCochlear implants (CIs) recover hearing in severely to profoundly hearing-impaired people by electrically stimulating the cochlea. While they are extremely effective, spatial hearing is typically severely limited. Recent studies have shown that haptic stimulation can supplement the electrical CI signal (electro-haptic stimulation) and substantially improve sound localization. In haptic sound-localization studies, the signal is extracted from the audio received by behind-the-ear devices and delivered to each wrist. Localization is achieved using tactile intensity differences (TIDs) across the wrists, which match sound intensity differences across the ears (a key sound localization cue). The current study established sensitivity to across-limb TIDs at three candidate locations for a wearable haptic device, namely: the lower tricep and the palmar and dorsal wrist. At all locations, TID sensitivity was similar to the sensitivity to across-ear intensity differences for normal-hearing listeners. This suggests that greater haptic sound-localization accuracy than previously shown can be achieved. The dynamic range was also measured and far exceeded that available through electrical CI stimulation for all of the locations, suggesting that haptic stimulation could provide additional sound-intensity information. These results indicate that an effective haptic aid could be deployed for any of the candidate locations, and could offer a low-cost, non-invasive means of improving outcomes for hearing-impaired listeners
Improving speech perception for hearing-impaired listeners using audio-to-tactile sensory substitution with multiple frequency channels
No full textAbstract Cochlear implants (CIs) have revolutionised treatment of hearing loss, but large populations globally cannot access them either because of disorders that prevent implantation or because they are expensive and require specialist surgery. Recent technology developments mean that haptic aids, which transmit speech through vibration, could offer a viable low-cost, non-invasive alternative. One important development is that compact haptic actuators can now deliver intense stimulation across multiple frequencies. We explored whether these multiple frequency channels can transfer spectral information to improve tactile phoneme discrimination. To convert audio to vibration, the speech amplitude envelope was extracted from one or more audio frequency bands and used to amplitude modulate one or more vibro-tactile tones delivered to a single-site on the wrist. In 26 participants with normal touch sensitivity, tactile-only phoneme discrimination was assessed with one, four, or eight frequency bands. Compared to one frequency band, performance improved by 5.9% with four frequency bands and by 8.4% with eight frequency bands. The multi-band signal-processing approach can be implemented in real-time on a compact device, and the vibro-tactile tones can be reproduced by the latest compact, low-powered actuators. This approach could therefore readily be implemented in a low-cost haptic hearing aid to deliver real-world benefits
Enhancing spatial hearing in cochlear implant users using vibrations on the wrists
No full textAim: Many cochlear implant (CI) users struggle to locate and separate sounds that come from different locations, particularly the majority of CI users in the UK who are implanted in only one ear [1]. Recently, it has been shown that speech-in-noise performance in CI users can be improved by augmenting the electrical signal from the implant with a haptic signal that provides missing sound information (“electro-haptic stimulation” [2]). We aim to test whether haptic stimulation on the wrists can be used to improve spatial hearing in CI users.Method: We measured localization ability in 12 unilaterally implanted CI users, either only with audio, or with combined audio and haptic stimulation. All conditions were measured before and after a short training regime (lasting around 50 minutes). We derived our haptic signal from the audio that would be received by CI or hearing aid microphones behind each ear. The signal from each ear was then remapped to a frequency range where the skin is most sensitive to vibration and delivered to each wrist. This meant that the intensity difference between the wrists corresponded to the intensity difference between the ears, which is a key spatial hearing cue.Results: We found that auditory localisation accuracy improved substantially when audio and haptic stimulation were provided together (electro-haptic stimulation). After a short training regime, participants’ average RMS error with electro-haptic stimulation was reduced to just 22.7°, which is comparable to the performance of bilateral hearing aid users (~19°) [3,5]. Even with no training, adding haptic stimulation reduced the RMS error from 47.2° to 29.3° on average. This performance is similar to the average performance achieved by CI users with implants in both ears (~27°) [3,4], or users with a CI in one ear and healthy hearing in the other (~28°) [3]. Conclusions: Our approach was designed to be easily transferable to a real-world application. The haptic signal was processed using a computationally lightweight algorithm that could be applied in real-time and was delivered at a vibration intensity that could readily be achieved by a low-cost wearable device. This could have an important clinical impact, providing an inexpensive, non-invasive means to dramatically improve spatial hearing in CI users.<br/
Using vibrotactile stimulation to improve speech-in-noise performance for cochlear implant users
No full textCochlear implant (CI) users often find understanding speech-in-noise to be one of the most challenging listening tasks. Delivering certain speech cues (e.g., fundamental frequency [F0] and amplitude envelope) via vibrotactile stimulation has been found to improve speech perception in noise (Huang et al. 2017; Fletcher et al. 2019). Brown and Bacon (2009) found that F0, amplitude envelope and voicing cues significantly enhance the speech-in-noise performance of simulated CI users when presented acoustically. However, voicing cues were found to provide slightly less benefit. The current study aims to evaluate which speech cues are most effective for enhancing speech-in-noise performance when delivered through vibrotactile stimulation on the wrists. Each participant in this study was trained for 90 minutes in each of the following conditions: voicing, amplitude envelope, F0, and without vibrotactile cues. Preliminary results from this study will be presented, and we expect to observe results similar to those of previous studies. It is hoped study’s finding will further clarify our understanding regarding the most useful vibrotactile cues. Ultimately, the goal is to integrate such cues in an inexpensive and non-invasive device to improve speech-in-noise performance of CI users
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