Projects
Revisiting the neural bottleneck of information transmission in cochlear implant users KU Leuven
In this project we will research a fully objective fitting process for cochlear implant fitting. This will be done by comparing and improving current EEG measurement methods, simplifying the analyses, improving the signal processing, and minimizing the number of electrodes needed. A clinical protocol for a fully objective fitting will be worked out for CIs, separately for 3 different sessions: Initial Fit, Fine-tuning and Optimizing speech ...
Unified, individualised, and self−adapting sound processing for combined cochlear implant and hearing aid Stimulation. KU Leuven
Cochlear implants can restore the hearing of the deaf by electrically stimulating the auditory nerve. They are often combined with a hearing aid in the non−implanted ear. This is called bimodal stimulation. Speech perception in a noisy environment and sound source localisation is still poor with these devices. They are manually fitted to individual patients by an audiologist in a fairly rudimentary and time consuming way. We will improve this ...
Cochlear Implant Artifact Suppression in EEG Measurements KU Leuven
Cochlear implants (CIs) aim to restore hearing in severely to profoundly deaf adults, children and infants. Electrically evoked auditory steady-state responses (EASSRs) are neural responses to continuous modulated pulse trains, and can be objectively detected at the modulation frequency in the electro-encephalogram (EEG). EASSRs provide a number of advantages over other objective measures, because frequency-specific stimuli are used, because ...
Design and Evaluation of Stimulation Artifact Suppression Algorithms in EEG Data, for Electrically Evoked Auditory Steady-State Responses (EASSR) Based on Testing in Cochlear Implant Users KU Leuven
Cochlear implants (CIs) aim to restore hearing in severely to profoundly deaf adults, children and infants. Electrically evoked auditory steady-state responses (EASSRs) are neural responses to continuous modulated CI pulse trains, and can be objectively detected at the modulation frequency in the electro-encephalogram (EEG). EASSRs can, e.g., potentially be used to determine appropriate stimulation levels during CI fitting, without behavioral ...
Individualised and self-adapting sound processing for cochlear implants. KU Leuven
Cochlear implants (CIs) are successful auditory prostheses that enable people with deafness to hear through electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. In a CI sound processor, a sound signal is converted into a sequence of electrical pulses. This conversion entails many parameters that should ideally be fine-tuned (fitted) for every individual patient, to account for various anatomical and physiological differences. In current clinical ...
Adapting cochlear implants and hearing aids to individual brains. KU Leuven
Current clinical practice requires active cooperation of the patient to individually fit a hearing device. The most important parameters for this fitting process are related to loudness. The aim of this PhD was to find neural correlates of loudness using 40-Hz auditory steady-state responses. These responses are auditory evoked potentials that can be measured fully objectively, non-invasively, and frequency-specifically in the ...