Christopher A Brown1. 1. Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Bilateral cochlear implant (BCI) users receive limited binaural cues and, thus, show little improvement to speech intelligibility from spatial cues. The feasibility of a method for enhancing the binaural cues available to BCI users is investigated. This involved extending interaural differences of levels, which typically are restricted to high frequencies, into the low-frequency region. DESIGN: Speech intelligibility was measured in BCI users listening over headphones and with direct stimulation, with a target talker presented to one side of the head in the presence of a masker talker on the other side. Spatial separation was achieved by applying either naturally occurring binaural cues or enhanced cues. RESULTS: In this listening configuration, BCI patients showed greater speech intelligibility with the enhanced binaural cues than with naturally occurring binaural cues. CONCLUSIONS: In some situations, it is possible for BCI users to achieve greater speech intelligibility when binaural cues are enhanced by applying interaural differences of levels in the low-frequency region.
OBJECTIVES: Bilateral cochlear implant (BCI) users receive limited binaural cues and, thus, show little improvement to speech intelligibility from spatial cues. The feasibility of a method for enhancing the binaural cues available to BCI users is investigated. This involved extending interaural differences of levels, which typically are restricted to high frequencies, into the low-frequency region. DESIGN: Speech intelligibility was measured in BCI users listening over headphones and with direct stimulation, with a target talker presented to one side of the head in the presence of a masker talker on the other side. Spatial separation was achieved by applying either naturally occurring binaural cues or enhanced cues. RESULTS: In this listening configuration, BCI patients showed greater speech intelligibility with the enhanced binaural cues than with naturally occurring binaural cues. CONCLUSIONS: In some situations, it is possible for BCI users to achieve greater speech intelligibility when binaural cues are enhanced by applying interaural differences of levels in the low-frequency region.
Authors: Bernhard Laback; Stefan-Marcel Pok; Wolf-Dieter Baumgartner; Werner A Deutsch; Karin Schmid Journal: Ear Hear Date: 2004-10 Impact factor: 3.570