Contribution of low-frequency acoustic information to Chinese speech recognition in cochlear implant simulations

J Acoust Soc Am. 2006 Oct;120(4):2260-6. doi: 10.1121/1.2336990.

Abstract

Chinese sentence recognition strongly relates to the reception of tonal information. For cochlear implant (CI) users with residual acoustic hearing, tonal information may be enhanced by restoring low-frequency acoustic cues in the nonimplanted ear. The present study investigated the contribution of low-frequency acoustic information to Chinese speech recognition in Mandarin-speaking normal-hearing subjects listening to acoustic simulations of bilaterally combined electric and acoustic hearing. Subjects listened to a 6-channel CI simulation in one ear and low-pass filtered speech in the other ear. Chinese tone, phoneme, and sentence recognition were measured in steady-state, speech-shaped noise, as a function of the cutoff frequency for low-pass filtered speech. Results showed that low-frequency acoustic information below 500 Hz contributed most strongly to tone recognition, while low-frequency acoustic information above 500 Hz contributed most strongly to phoneme recognition. For Chinese sentences, speech reception thresholds (SRTs) improved with increasing amounts of low-frequency acoustic information, and significantly improved when low-frequency acoustic information above 500 Hz was preserved. SRTs were not significantly affected by the degree of spectral overlap between the CI simulation and low-pass filtered speech. These results suggest that, for CI patients with residual acoustic hearing, preserving low-frequency acoustic information can improve Chinese speech recognition in noise.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation / methods*
  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Cochlear Implants*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Electric Stimulation / methods
  • Equipment Design
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Language
  • Male
  • Speech Acoustics*
  • Speech Perception / physiology*
  • Speech Reception Threshold Test