Source segregation in noisy environments by children with normal hearing and bilateral cochlear implants.

2010 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 2425-2425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Litovsky ◽  
Sara Misurelli ◽  
Shelly Godar
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Noisy Environments ◽  
Bilateral Cochlear Implants ◽  
Source Segregation

scholarly journals Auditory Attention and Spatial Unmasking in Children With Cochlear Implants

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 233121652094698
Author(s):  
Sara M. Misurelli ◽  
Matthew J. Goupell ◽  
Emily A. Burg ◽  
Rachael Jocewicz ◽  
Alan Kan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Free Field ◽  
Auditory Attention ◽  
Noisy Environments ◽  
Speech Stimuli ◽  
Bilateral Cochlear Implants ◽  
Speech Reception ◽  
Spatial Unmasking ◽  
Speech Reception Thresholds ◽  
Hearing Children

The ability to attend to target speech in background noise is an important skill, particularly for children who spend many hours in noisy environments. Intelligibility improves as a result of spatial or binaural unmasking in the free-field for normal-hearing children; however, children who use bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs) demonstrate little benefit in similar situations. It was hypothesized that poor auditory attention abilities might explain the lack of unmasking observed in children with BiCIs. Target and interferer speech stimuli were presented to either or both ears of BiCI participants via their clinical processors. Speech reception thresholds remained low when the target and interferer were in opposite ears, but they did not show binaural unmasking when the interferer was presented to both ears and the target only to one ear. These results demonstrate that, in the most extreme cases of stimulus separation, children with BiCIs can ignore an interferer and attend to target speech, but there is weak or absent binaural unmasking. It appears that children with BiCIs mostly experience poor encoding of binaural cues rather than deficits in ability to selectively attend to target speech.

scholarly journals Auditory motion tracking ability of adults with normal hearing and with bilateral cochlear implants

2019 ◽  
Vol 145 (4) ◽  
pp. 2498-2511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keng Moua ◽  
Alan Kan ◽  
Heath G. Jones ◽  
Sara M. Misurelli ◽  
Ruth Y. Litovsky
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Motion Tracking ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Auditory Motion ◽  
Bilateral Cochlear Implants ◽  
Tracking Ability

scholarly journals Sound Localization in Toddlers with Normal Hearing and with Bilateral Cochlear Implants Revealed Through a Novel “Reaching for Sound” Task

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (03) ◽  
pp. 195-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica E. Bennett ◽  
Ruth Y. Litovsky
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Root Mean Square ◽  
Sound Localization ◽  
Spatial Hearing ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Mean Square ◽  
Sound Location ◽  
Bilateral Cochlear Implants ◽  
Single Implant ◽  
Hearing Abilities

AbstractSpatial hearing abilities in children with bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs) are typically improved when two implants are used compared with a single implant. However, even with BiCIs, spatial hearing is still worse compared to normal-hearing (NH) age-matched children. Here, we focused on children who were younger than three years, hence in their toddler years. Prior research with this age focused on measuring discrimination of sounds from the right versus left.This study measured both discrimination and sound location identification in a nine-alternative forced-choice paradigm using the “reaching for sound” method, whereby children reached for sounding objects as a means of capturing their spatial hearing abilities.Discrimination was measured with sounds randomly presented to the left versus right, and loudspeakers at fixed angles ranging from ±60° to ±15°. On a separate task, sound location identification was measured for locations ranging from ±60° in 15° increments.Thirteen children with BiCIs (27–42 months old) and fifteen age-matched (NH).Discrimination and sound localization were completed for all subjects. For the left–right discrimination task, participants were required to reach a criterion of 4/5 correct trials (80%) at each angular separation prior to beginning the localization task. For sound localization, data was analyzed in two ways. First, percent correct scores were tallied for each participant. Second, for each participant, the root-mean-square-error was calculated to determine the average distance between the response and stimulus, indicative of localization accuracy.All BiCI users were able to discriminate left versus right at angles as small as ±15° when listening with two implants; however, performance was significantly worse when listening with a single implant. All NH toddlers also had >80% correct at ±15°. Sound localization results revealed root-mean-square errors averaging 11.15° in NH toddlers. Children in the BiCI group were generally unable to identify source location on this complex task (average error 37.03°).Although some toddlers with BiCIs are able to localize sound in a manner consistent with NH toddlers, for the majority of toddlers with BiCIs, sound localization abilities are still emerging.

Combined Effects of Noise and Reverberation on Sound Localization for Listeners With Normal Hearing and Bilateral Cochlear Implants

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-530
Author(s):  
Yunfang Zheng ◽  
Janet Koehnke ◽  
Joan Besing
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implant ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Sound Localization ◽  
Noise Source ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Combined Effects ◽  
Bilateral Cochlear Implants ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Localization Test ◽  
The Individual

Purpose This study examined the individual and combined effects of noise and reverberation on the ability of listeners with normal hearing (NH) and with bilateral cochlear implants (BCIs) to localize speech. Method Six adults with BCIs and 10 with NH participated. All subjects completed a virtual localization test in quiet and at 0-, −4-, and −8-dB signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) in simulated anechoic and reverberant (0.2-, 0.6-, and 0.9-s RT 60 ) environments. BCI users were also tested at +8- and +4-dB SNR. A 3-word phrase was presented at 70 dB SPL from 9 simulated locations in the frontal horizontal plane (±90°), with the noise source at 0°. Results BCIs users had significantly poorer localization than listeners with NH in all conditions. BCI users' performance started to decrease at a higher SNR (+4 dB) and shorter RT 60 (0.2 s) than listeners with NH (−4 dB and 0.6 s). The combination of noise and reverberation began to degrade localization of BCI users at a higher SNR and a shorter RT 60 than listeners with NH. Conclusion The clear effect of noise and reverberation on the performance of BCI users provides information that should be useful for refining cochlear implant processing strategies and developing cochlear implant rehabilitation plans to optimize binaural benefit for BCI users in everyday listening situations.

scholarly journals Vocal Development in Infants and Toddlers With Bilateral Cochlear Implants and Infants With Normal Hearing

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1296-1308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taina T. Välimaa ◽  
Sari M. Kunnari ◽  
Päivi Laukkanen-Nevala ◽  
David J. Ertmer
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Effect Size ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Lower Percentage ◽  
Typical Development ◽  
Infants And Toddlers ◽  
Vocal Development ◽  
Bilateral Cochlear Implants ◽  
Prospective Longitudinal

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the time course of vocal development in infants and toddlers with bilateral cochlear implants (CIs; bilateral CI group) who are acquiring Finnish and to compare their progress to that of infants with normal hearing and typical development (TD group). Method Five thousand nine hundred sixty-four spontaneous utterances of 30 infants and toddlers (15 in both groups) were classified as either precanonical (PC) vocalizations, basic canonical syllables (BCS), or advanced forms (AF) levels. Time course of development and group differences were analyzed in a prospective longitudinal study during a time course of 1 year: before implantation and 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after CI activation for the bilateral CI group and at 6, 9, and 12 months of age for the TD group. Results The least mature PC vocalizations decreased and the BCS and AF vocalizations increased for both the bilateral CI and TD groups during the follow-up period of 1 year. The bilateral CI group produced a lower percentage of PC vocalizations (effect size, η p 2 = .35) and a higher percentage of BCS (effect size, η p 2 = .16) and AF vocalizations (effect size, η p 2 = 0.24) than the TD group. Conclusions The findings of this study showed that vocal development of infants and toddlers with early-identified profound hearing loss is delayed before CI activation. Findings also showed that infants and toddlers with bilateral CIs make rapid advancements in vocal development after implantation compared to infants with typical development. However, their vocal development seems to remain delayed at least during the 1st year of bilateral CI use as compared to the well-documented milestones of infants and toddlers with typical development. Information about the vocal development time course following bilateral CI activation helps parents recognize progress in auditory-guided speech development before the emergence and the use of spoken words in communication.

scholarly journals Functional Consequences of Poor Binaural Hearing in Development: Evidence From Children With Unilateral Hearing Loss and Children Receiving Bilateral Cochlear Implants

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 233121652110512
Author(s):  
Claire McSweeny ◽  
Sharon L. Cushing ◽  
Jennifer L. Campos ◽  
Blake C. Papsin ◽  
Karen A. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Binaural Hearing ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Unilateral Hearing Loss ◽  
Visuospatial Memory ◽  
Bilateral Cochlear Implants ◽  
Academic Deficits

Poor binaural hearing in children was hypothesized to contribute to related cognitive and academic deficits. Children with unilateral hearing have normal hearing in one ear but no access to binaural cues. Their cognitive and academic deficits could be unique from children receiving bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) at young ages who have poor access to spectral cues and impaired binaural sensitivity. Both groups are at risk for vestibular/balance deficits which could further contribute to memory and learning challenges. Eighty-eight children (43 male:45 female, aged 9.89  ±  3.40 years), grouped by unilateral hearing loss ( n = 20), bilateral CI ( n = 32), and typically developing ( n = 36), completed a battery of sensory, cognitive, and academic tests. Analyses revealed that children in both hearing loss groups had significantly poorer skills (accounting for age) on most tests than their normal hearing peers. Children with unilateral hearing loss had more asymmetric speech perception than children with bilateral CIs ( p < .0001) but balance and language deficits ( p = .0004, p < .0001, respectively) were similar in the two hearing loss groups ( p > .05). Visuospatial memory deficits occurred in both hearing loss groups ( p = .02) but more consistently across tests in children with unilateral hearing loss. Verbal memory was not significantly different than normal ( p > .05). Principal component analyses revealed deficits in a main cluster of visuospatial memory, oral language, mathematics, and reading measures (explaining 46.8% data variability). The remaining components revealed clusters of self-reported hearing, balance and vestibular function, and speech perception deficits. The findings indicate significant developmental impacts of poor binaural hearing in children.

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