title: Combined spectral and temporal enhancement to improve cochlear-implant speech perception.
abstract: The present study examined the effect of combined spectral and temporal enhancement on speech recognition by cochlear-implant (CI) users in quiet and in noise. The spectral enhancement was achieved by expanding the short-term Fourier amplitudes in the input signal. Additionally, a variation of the Transient Emphasis Spectral Maxima (TESM) strategy was applied to enhance the short-duration consonant cues that are otherwise suppressed when processed with spectral expansion. Nine CI users were tested on phoneme recognition tasks and ten CI users were tested on sentence recognition tasks both in quiet and in steady, speech-spectrum-shaped noise. Vowel and consonant recognition in noise were significantly improved with spectral expansion combined with TESM. Sentence recognition improved with both spectral expansion and spectral expansion combined with TESM. The amount of improvement varied with individual CI users. Overall the present results suggest that customized processing is needed to optimize performance according to not only individual users but also listening conditions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Hearing Research, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA. abhattac@uci.edu
authors.forename: Aparajita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vandali
authors.forename: Fan-Gang
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Zeng
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment / Q000523:psychology; D003463:Cues; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception
references.citation: J Rehabil Res Dev. 1993;30(1):49-72
references.pmid: 8263829
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Feb 15;102(7):2293-8
references.pmid: 15677723
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1995 May;97(5 Pt 1):3099-111
references.pmid: 7759650
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2002 Apr;111(4):1872-91
references.pmid: 12002871
references.citation: Hear Res. 2009 Jan;247(2):100-11
references.pmid: 19063955
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1993 Feb;93(2):1058-67
references.pmid: 8445117
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1991 Mar;89(3):1378-82
references.pmid: 2030225
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2008 Dec;124(6):3947
references.pmid: 19206819
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2001 May;109(5 Pt 1):2049-61
references.pmid: 11386557
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1973 Nov;54(5):1248-66
references.pmid: 4765809
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2003 Feb;113(2):961-8
references.pmid: 12597189
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2007 Mar;121(3):1709-16
references.pmid: 17407907
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2004 Aug;116(2):1081-91
references.pmid: 15376674
references.citation: J Speech Hear Res. 1988 Sep;31(3):386-93
references.pmid: 3172755
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2007 Aug;122(2):1079-89
references.pmid: 17672655
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2001 Sep;110(3 Pt 1):1619-27
references.pmid: 11572371
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2002 Sep;112(3 Pt 1):1145-57
references.pmid: 12243161
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1990 Dec;88(6):2546-56
references.pmid: 2283428
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1998 Dec;104(6):3583-5
references.pmid: 9857516
references.citation: Ear Hear. 1999 Feb;20(1):60-74
references.pmid: 10037066
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1986 Dec;80(6):1599-607
references.pmid: 3794065
references.citation: Hear Res. 2003 May;179(1-2):72-87
references.pmid: 12742240
references.citation: Ear Hear. 2005 Apr;26(2):225-35
references.pmid: 15809547
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1988 Jun;83(6):2322-7
references.pmid: 3411024
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 2008 May;123(5):2848-57
references.pmid: 18529200
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1998 Feb;103(2):1098-114
references.pmid: 9479764
references.citation: Am J Otol. 1996 Nov;17(6):859-65
references.pmid: 8915414
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1999 Dec;106(6):L71-4
references.pmid: 10615713
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1998 May;103(5 Pt 1):2565-72
references.pmid: 9604350
references.citation: J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2005 Jun;48(3):681-701
references.pmid: 16197281
references.citation: Ear Hear. 1992 Aug;13(4):263-71
references.pmid: 1397769
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1996 Oct;100(4 Pt 1):2393-414
references.pmid: 8865646
references.citation: Ear Hear. 2000 Feb;21(1):25-31
references.pmid: 10708071
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1999 Sep;106(3 Pt 1):1452-64
references.pmid: 10489703