A preliminary study of the effects of cochlear implants on the production of sibilants.
The potential influence of auditory information in the production of /s/ and /integral of/ was explored for postlingually deafened adults with four-channel Ineraid cochlear implants. Analyses of the spectra of the sibilant sounds were compared for speech obtained prior to implant activation, after early implant use and after 6 months of use. In addition, the output of the Ineraid device (measured at each of the four electrodes) was analyzed with pre- and postactivation speech samples to explore whether the speech production changes were potentially audible to the cochlear-implant user. Results indicated that subjects who showed abnormally low or incorrect contrast between /s/ and /integral of/ preactivation, and who received significant auditory benefit from their implants were able to increase the distinctiveness of their productions of the two speech sounds.
Matthies
M L
ML
Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139.
Svirsky
M A
MA
Lane
H L
HL
Perkell
J S
JS
D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013067:Speech Perception; D013068:Speech Production Measurement