Development of a unified speech processing strategy for combined electric and acoustic auditory stimulation.

Cochlear implants (CIs) can restore speech perception of deaf subjects by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. Because CI users sometimes perform better than severely hearing impaired subjects with a hearing aid (HA), implantation criteria are changing, leading to a steeply growing population of patients with a CI in one ear and residual hearing, used with a HA, in the other. This is called bimodal stimulation. Currently more than half of all newly implanted patients have residual hearing. Nevertheless, the CI and HA are mostly fitted individually and their signal processors function independently. In this project, a unified bimodal speech processing strategy will be developed to improve sound quality, pitch perception, speech perception in noise, and sound source localization by enhancing modulations in the electric signal. A fitting paradigm for the new strategy that optimizes binaural loudness while preserving binaural cues will be developed and the strategy and fitting paradigm will be evaluated with bimodal listeners.

Keywords:Modulation, Bimodal stimulation, Signal processing, Localization, Hearing aid, Cochlear implant

Disciplines:Modelling, Multimedia processing, Otorhinolaryngology, Speech, language and hearing sciences