人工耳蜗非实时研究平台开发与验证

人工耳蜗帮助超过40万人恢复了部分听力,但其性能仍有较大提升空间,且电听觉机理仍有待进一步揭示。针对诺尔康人工耳蜗系统开发了非实时研究平台。为了验证平台的有效性,对成年植入者开展了电听觉基础心理物理实验(位置音高和包络音高)和噪声中的言语接受阈测量实验。心理物理结果显示,被试者可以按照电极位置从蜗尖到蜗底或按照幅度调制频率从50~200 Hz,产生音高上升的感觉。言语测试显示,基于该平台实现的策略,能提供与临床处理器相当水平的噪声中言语接受阈。该平台可以帮助研究者快速开展电听觉心理物理和信号处理策略方面的研究。

Development and validation of an offline research interface for cochlear implants

Cochlear Implants (CIs) have been used to restore hearing for more than 400,000 people. However, the performance of CIs is still limited comparing with the normal hearing and the underlying mechanisms of electric hearing are not fully revealed. An offline research interface of Nurotron CI system is introduced in this paper. Two versions of the interface were developed in the past five years. To validate the interface, basic psychophysical experiments (place-pitch and envelope-pitch ranking) and speech recognition thresholds test were performed on totally 13 adult Nurotron CI users (4 for place-pitch, 7 for envelope-pitch, and 2 for speech test). The basic psychophysical results show that pitch could be ranked from low to high according to tonotopic place (from apex to base) and amplitude modulation rate (from 50 to 200 Hz), and the data conform to the data in other literatures. The speech test results show that the experimental strategy, which is implemented through the interface, derives comparable speech reception thresholds in noise to the subjects'' clinical processors. The research interface is crucial for CI researchers to perform electric hearing psychophysical study and CI signal processing study in China.