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Objectives: Fundamental frequency (F0) information is important to Chinese tone and speech recognition. Cochlear implant (CI) speech processors typically provide limited F0 information via temporal envelopes delivered to stimulating electrodes. Previous studies have shown that English-speaking CI users' speech performance is correlated with amplitude modulation detection thresholds (AMDTs). The present study investigated whether Chinese-speaking CI users' speech performance (especially tone recognition) is correlated with temporal processing capabilities.
Design: Chinese tone, vowel, consonant, and sentence recognition were measured in 10 native Mandarin-speaking CI users via clinically assigned speech processors. AMDTs were measured in the same subjects for 20- and 100-Hz amplitude modulated (AM) stimuli presented to a middle electrode at five stimulation levels that spanned the dynamic range. To further investigate the CI users' sensitivity to temporal envelope cues, AM frequency discrimination thresholds (AMFDTs) were measured for two standard AM frequencies (50 and 100 Hz), presented to the same middle electrode at 30% and 70% dynamic range with a fixed modulation depth (50%).
Results: Results showed that AMDTs significantly improved with increasing stimulation level and that individual subjects exhibited markedly different AMDT functions. AMFDTs also improved with increasing stimulation level and were better with the 100-Hz standard AM frequency than with the 50-Hz standard AM frequency. Statistical analyses revealed that both mean AMDTs (averaged for 20- or 100-Hz AM across all stimulation levels) and mean AMFDTs (averaged for the 50-Hz standard AM frequency across both stimulation levels) were significantly correlated with tone, consonant, and sentence recognition scores, but not with vowel recognition scores. Mean AMDTs were also significantly correlated with mean AMFDTs.
Conclusions: These preliminary results, obtained from a limited number of subjects, demonstrate the importance of temporal processing to CI speech recognition. The results further suggest that CI users' Chinese tone and speech recognition may be improved by enhancing temporal envelope cues delivered by speech processing algorithms.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0b013e3181888f61 | DOI Listing |
Zhonghua Jie He He Hu Xi Za Zhi
September 2025
Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, National Center for Respiratory Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory He
Cough is a common symptom of many respiratory diseases, and parameters such as frequency, intensity, type and duration play important roles in disease screening, diagnosis and prognosis. Among these, cough frequency is the most widely applied metric. In current clinical practice, cough severity is primarily assessed based on patients' subjective symptom descriptions in combination with semi-structured questionnaires.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCogn Psychol
September 2025
Graduate School of Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, Kami, Kochi, Japan. Electronic address:
Prior researches on global-local processing have focused on hierarchical objects in the visual modality, while the real-world involves multisensory interactions. The present study investigated whether the simultaneous presentation of auditory stimuli influences the recognition of visually hierarchical objects. We added four types of auditory stimuli to the traditional visual hierarchical letters paradigm:no sound (visual-only), a pure tone, a spoken letter that was congruent with the required response (response-congruent), or a spoken letter that was incongruent with it (response-incongruent).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanomicro Lett
September 2025
Nanomaterials & System Lab, Major of Mechatronics Engineering, Faculty of Applied Energy System, Jeju National University, Jeju, 63243, Republic of Korea.
Wearable sensors integrated with deep learning techniques have the potential to revolutionize seamless human-machine interfaces for real-time health monitoring, clinical diagnosis, and robotic applications. Nevertheless, it remains a critical challenge to simultaneously achieve desirable mechanical and electrical performance along with biocompatibility, adhesion, self-healing, and environmental robustness with excellent sensing metrics. Herein, we report a multifunctional, anti-freezing, self-adhesive, and self-healable organogel pressure sensor composed of cobalt nanoparticle encapsulated nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (CoN CNT) embedded in a polyvinyl alcohol-gelatin (PVA/GLE) matrix.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEar Hear
September 2025
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Objectives: Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing one's own emotions. Alexithymia has previously been associated with deficits in the processing of emotional information at both behavioral and neurobiological levels, and some studies have shown elevated levels of alexithymic traits in adults with hearing loss. This explorative study investigated alexithymia in young and adolescent school-age children with hearing aids in relation to (1) a sample of age-matched children with normal hearing, (2) age, (3) hearing thresholds, and (4) vocal emotion recognition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEar Hear
September 2025
Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the potential contribution of subtle peripheral auditory dysfunction to listening difficulties (LiD) using a threshold-equalizing noise (TEN) test and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE). We hypothesized that a subset of patients with LiD have undetectable peripheral auditory dysfunction.
Design: This case-control study included 61 patients (12 to 53 years old; male/female, 18/43) in the LiD group and 22 volunteers (12 to 59 years old; male/female, 10/12) in the control group.