Covariation of Cochlear Implant Users' Perception and Production of Vowel Contrasts and Their Identification by Listeners With Normal Hearing

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1257-1267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennell C. Vick ◽  
Harlan Lane ◽  
Joseph S. Perkell ◽  
Melanie L. Matthies ◽  
John Gould ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Enhanced Production ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Masking Noise ◽  
Perceptual Contrast ◽  
Acoustic Space ◽  
Vowel Contrast ◽  
Phoneme Identification

This study investigates covariation of perception and production of vowel contrasts in speakers who use cochlear implants and identification of those contrasts by listeners with normal hearing. Formant measures were made of seven vowel pairs whose members are neighboring in acoustic space. The vowels were produced in carrier phrases by 8 postlingually deafened adults, before and after they received their cochlear implants (CI). Improvements in a speaker's production and perception of a given vowel contrast and normally hearing listeners' identification of that contrast in masking noise tended to occur together. Specifically, speakers who produced vowel pairs with reduced contrast in the pre-CI condition (measured by separation in the acoustic vowel space) and who showed improvement in their perception of these contrasts post-CI (measured with a phoneme identification test) were found to have enhanced production contrasts post-CI in many cases. These enhanced production contrasts were associated, in turn, with enhanced masked word recognition, as measured from responses of a group of 10 normally hearing listeners. The results support the view that restoring self-hearing allows a speaker to adjust articulatory routines to ensure sufficient perceptual contrast for listeners.

Use of a Mild-Gain Hearing Aid by Middle-Age Normal-Hearing Adults Who Do and Do Not Self-Report Trouble Hearing in Background Noise

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-428
Author(s):  
Jasleen Singh ◽  
Karen A. Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Background Noise ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Hearing Aid Use ◽  
Hearing Handicap ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Hearing Problems

Purpose The aim of the study was to assess how the use of a mild-gain hearing aid can affect hearing handicap, motivation, and attitudes toward hearing aids for middle-age, normal-hearing adults who do and do not self-report trouble hearing in background noise. Method A total of 20 participants (45–60 years of age) with clinically normal-hearing thresholds (< 25 dB HL) were enrolled in this study. Ten self-reported difficulty hearing in background noise, and 10 did not self-report difficulty hearing in background noise. All participants were fit with mild-gain hearing aids, bilaterally, and were asked to wear them for 2 weeks. Hearing handicap, attitudes toward hearing aids and hearing loss, and motivation to address hearing problems were evaluated before and after participants wore the hearing aids. Participants were also asked if they would consider purchasing a hearing aid before and after 2 weeks of hearing aid use. Results After wearing the hearing aids for 2 weeks, hearing handicap scores decreased for the participants who self-reported difficulty hearing in background noise. No changes in hearing handicap scores were observed for the participants who did not self-report trouble hearing in background noise. The participants who self-reported difficulty hearing in background noise also reported greater personal distress from their hearing problems, were more motivated to address their hearing problems, and had higher levels of hearing handicap compared to the participants who did not self-report trouble hearing in background noise. Only 20% (2/10) of the participants who self-reported trouble hearing in background noise reported that they would consider purchasing a hearing aid after 2 weeks of hearing aid use. Conclusions The use of mild-gain hearing aids has the potential to reduce hearing handicap for normal-hearing, middle-age adults who self-report difficulty hearing in background noise. However, this may not be the most appropriate treatment option for their current hearing problems given that only 20% of these participants would consider purchasing a hearing aid after wearing hearing aids for 2 weeks.

Age at Full-Time Use Predicts Language Outcomes Better Than Age of Surgery in Children Who Use Cochlear Implants

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 986-992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa R. Park ◽  
Erika B. Gagnon ◽  
Erin Thompson ◽  
Kevin D. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Time Use ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Language Outcomes ◽  
Age At Surgery ◽  
Device Placement ◽  
Device Use ◽  
Better Than

Purpose The aims of this study were to (a) determine a metric for describing full-time use (FTU), (b) establish whether age at FTU in children with cochlear implants (CIs) predicts language at 3 years of age better than age at surgery, and (c) describe the extent of FTU and length of time it took to establish FTU in this population. Method This retrospective analysis examined receptive and expressive language outcomes at 3 years of age for 40 children with CIs. Multiple linear regression analyses were run with age at surgery and age at FTU as predictor variables. FTU definitions included 8 hr of device use and 80% of average waking hours for a typically developing child. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the establishment and degree of FTU. Results Although 8 hr of daily wear is typically considered FTU in the literature, the 80% hearing hours percentage metric accounts for more variability in outcomes. For both receptive and expressive language, age at FTU was found to be a better predictor of outcomes than age at surgery. It took an average of 17 months for children in this cohort to establish FTU, and only 52.5% reached this milestone by the time they were 3 years old. Conclusions Children with normal hearing can access spoken language whenever they are awake, and the amount of time young children are awake increases with age. A metric that incorporates the percentage of time that children with CIs have access to sound as compared to their same-aged peers with normal hearing accounts for more variability in outcomes than using an arbitrary number of hours. Although early FTU is not possible without surgery occurring at a young age, device placement does not guarantee use and does not predict language outcomes as well as age at FTU.

Interaction of Speech Coders and Atypical Speech II

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald G. Jamieson ◽  
Vijay Parsa ◽  
Moneca C. Price ◽  
James Till
Keyword(s):  
Communication Systems ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Voice Disorders ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Speech Quality ◽  
Degraded Speech ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Subband Processing

We investigated how standard speech coders, currently used in modern communication systems, affect the quality of the speech of persons who have common speech and voice disorders. Three standardized speech coders (GSM 6.10 RPELTP, FS1016 CELP, and FS1015 LPC) and two speech coders based on subband processing were evaluated for their performance. Coder effects were assessed by measuring the quality of speech samples both before and after processing by the speech coders. Speech quality was rated by 10 listeners with normal hearing on 28 different scales representing pitch and loudness changes, speech rate, laryngeal and resonatory dysfunction, and coder-induced distortions. Results showed that (a) nine scale items were consistently and reliably rated by the listeners; (b) all coders degraded speech quality on these nine scales, with the GSM and CELP coders providing the better quality speech; and (c) interactions between coders and individual voices did occur on several voice quality scales.

Frequency-Importance and Transfer Functions for the Auditec of St. Louis Recordings of the NU-6 Word Test

1993 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 799-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald A. Studebaker ◽  
Robert L. Sherbecoe ◽  
Christine Gilmore
Keyword(s):  
Transfer Function ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Transfer Functions ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Word Test ◽  
Importance Function ◽  
Masking Noise

Frequency-importance and transfer functions for the Auditec of St. Louis recordings of the NU-6 word test are reported. The functions were derived from the word recognition scores of 24 subjects with normal hearing who were tested under 128 conditions of filtering and talker-spectrum-matched noise. The importance function was broader and had a lower midpoint than the NU-6 importance function reported by Schum, Matthews, and Lee (1991), but still displayed a bimodal shape. The transfer function was steeper than the transfer function reported by Schum et al., but comparable in slope to the transfer function for low-context CNC words reported by Bell, Dirks, and Trine (1992). Results from a limited set of conditions presented in quiet suggest that the use of masking noise was partly responsible for the dissimilar importance and transfer functions obtained by Schum et al. and this study. Differences in the equipment used in each experiment and in the methods used to analyze the data appear to have contributed as well.

scholarly journals Duration measurement of vocants in infants with Cochlear Implants

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paris Binos
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Prosodic Feature ◽  
Verbal Skills ◽  
Young Infants

Vocants are precursors to speech and are facially neutral. The presence of these speechlike vocalizations was evident during the precursors to mature phonology called “protophones”. The prosodic feature of duration of the nuclei plays a crucial role in the shift of prelexical to mature speech, since speech intelligibility is closely related to the control of duration. The aim of this work is to determine whether cochlear implants (CIs) positively trigger language acquisition and the development of verbal skills. Recent literature findings are compared and discussed with the performance of two Greek congenitally hearing-impaired infants who were matched with three normal-hearing (NH) infants. This work highlighted an important weakness of the prosodic abilities of young infants with CIs.

Kinematic and Acoustic Changes to Vowels and Diphthongs in Bite Block Speech

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Christopher Dromey ◽  
Michelle Richins ◽  
Tanner Low
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Sentence Context ◽  
Bite Block ◽  
Transition Duration ◽  
Formant Frequencies ◽  
Working Space ◽  
Vowel Space ◽  
Articulation Index ◽  
Before And After

Purpose We examined the effect of bite block insertion (BBI) on lingual movements and formant frequencies in corner vowel and diphthong production in a sentence context. Method Twenty young adults produced the corner vowels (/u/, /ɑ/, /æ/, /i/) and the diphthong /ɑɪ/ in sentence contexts before and after BBI. An electromagnetic articulograph measured the movements of the tongue back, middle, and front. Results There were significant decreases in the acoustic vowel articulation index and vowel space area following BBI. The kinematic vowel articulation index decreased significantly for the back and middle of the tongue but not for the front. There were no significant acoustic changes post-BBI for the diphthong, other than a longer transition duration. Diphthong kinematic changes after BBI included smaller movements for the back and middle of the tongue, but not the front. Conclusions BBI led to a smaller acoustic working space for the corner vowels. The adjustments made by the front of the tongue were sufficient to compensate for the BBI perturbation in the diphthong, resulting in unchanged formant trajectories. The back and middle of the tongue were likely biomechanically restricted in their displacement by the fixation of the jaw, whereas the tongue front showed greater movement flexibility.

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