Acoustic and perceptual effects of WDRC amplification

WDRC 放大的声学和感知效果

• 批准号: 6867557
• 负责人: PAMELA E. SOUZA
• 金额: $ 24.71万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-03-01 至 2010-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6867557
• 关键词: assistive device /technology; auditory feedback; behavioral /social science research tag; bioengineering /biomedical engineering; clinical biomedical equipment; clinical research; compression; cues; hearing aids; human subject; loudness; neural information processing; sensorineural hearing loss; speech recognition

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): WDRC processing uses rapid, automatic gain adjustment to place more speech cues within the listener's audible range. Most hearing aids (> 80%) now offer WDRC, so over time this technology will be provided to most of the 6.2 million hearing aid wearers in the United States. However, WDRC processing does not always improve speech recognition over conventional amplification, perhaps because of distortions to the temporal properties of the speech signal. We are particularly interested in listeners with severe loss, who because of broader auditory filters may depend more heavily on temporal cues for recognition. Severely impaired listeners cannot communicate without acceptable amplification, so it is important not to distort usable information. Therefore, the long-term objectives of this project are to describe the effects of wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC) amplification on temporal cues for speech recognition and to assess the consequences of those changes for listeners with severe sensorineural hearing loss. The first Specific Aim is to compare speech recognition scores for WDRC versus linear amplification in a cohort of listeners with severe sensorineural hearing loss. Subjects will be fit with a master hearing aid using accepted clinical parameters and speech recognition measured under laboratory conditions. We will also analyze consonant error patterns, using a feature analysis. Our hypothesis is that listeners with severe loss fit with WDRC amplification will perform more poorly than listeners with mild-to-moderate loss, and that error patterns will indicate confusion of sounds that depend on temporal cues. The second Specific Aim is to describe the effects of WDRC on temporal cues essential for speech recognition. Recognition will be measured for speech processed to limit spectral information. Acoustic analysis of amplified speech will be used in conjunction with speech recognition scores to directly examine the extent of temporal cue distortion from WDRC and to determine an acceptable range of amplitude compression. The proposed project will also test the utility of quantifying amplitude envelope changes and the usefulness of these measures to predict recognition of WDRC-amplified speech. The third Specific Aim is to describe how spectral cue perception changes with increasing numbers of compression channels. We will use acoustic analysis in combination with vowel recognition. Our hypothesis is that listeners with severe loss who are less able to discriminate spectral details will show less degradation from larger numbers of compression channels.

描述（由申请人提供）：WDRC 处理使用快速、自动增益调整来将更多语音提示置于听众的可听范围内。大多数助听器（> 80%）现在都提供 WDRC，因此随着时间的推移，这项技术将提供给美国 620 万助听器佩戴者中的大多数。然而，WDRC 处理并不总能比传统放大提高语音识别能力，这可能是因为语音信号的时间特性发生了失真。我们对遭受严重损失的听众特别感兴趣，因为更广泛的听觉过滤器可能更依赖时间线索进行识别。如果没有可接受的放大效果，严重受损的听众就无法进行交流，因此不要扭曲可用信息非常重要。因此，该项目的长期目标是描述宽动态范围压缩 (WDRC) 放大对语音识别的时间线索的影响，并评估这些变化对患有严重感音神经性听力损失的听众的影响。 第一个具体目标是比较一组患有严重感音神经性听力损失的听众的 WDRC 与线性放大的语音识别分数。受试者将使用在实验室条件下测量的公认的临床参数和语音识别来安装主助听器。我们还将使用特征分析来分析辅音错误模式。我们的假设是，与 WDRC 放大配合严重损失的听众会比轻度到中度损失的听众表现更差，并且错误模式将表明依赖于时间线索的声音混乱。第二个具体目标是描述 WDRC 对语音识别所必需的时间线索的影响。将对经过处理的语音进行识别以限制频谱信息。放大语音的声学分析将与语​​音识别分数结合使用，以直接检查 WDRC 的时间线索失真程度，并确定可接受的幅度压缩范围。拟议项目还将测试量化幅度包络变化的实用性以及这些措施在预测 WDRC 放大语音识别方面的有用性。第三个具体目标是描述频谱线索感知如何随着压缩通道数量的增加而变化。我们将结合使用声学分析和元音识别。我们的假设是，那些遭受严重损失、辨别频谱细节能力较差的听众，在使用大量压缩通道时表现出的性能下降会较小。