Adding simultaneous stimulating channels to reduce power consumption in cochlear implants

Langner, Florian; Saoji, Aniket A.; Büchner, Andreas; Nogueira, Waldo

doi:10.1016/j.heares.2017.01.010

Cited by 22 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…In general, it has been shown that better spectral resolution correlates with better speech recognition in noise for CI users (Drennan et al 2016; Henry & Turner 2003; Holden et al 2016; Won et al 2007; however, see Langner et al 2017). It has also been shown that simulating broad activation patterns in normal hearing listeners via a vocoder results in deterioration of both spectral resolution and vowel recognition (Litvak et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of the Spectral-Temporally Modulated Ripple Test With the Arizona Biomedical Institute Sentence Test in Cochlear Implant Users

Lawler

Aronoff

2017

Ear &Amp; Hearing

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Objectives Although speech perception is the gold standard for measuring cochlear implant (CI) users’ performance, speech perception tests often require extensive adaptation to obtain accurate results, particularly after large changes in maps. Spectral ripple tests, which measure spectral resolution, are an alternate measure that has been shown to correlate with speech perception. A modified spectral ripple test, the spectral-temporally modulated ripple test (SMRT) has recently been developed, and the objective of this study is to compare speech perception and performance on the SMRT for a heterogeneous population of unilateral CI users, bilateral CI users, and bimodal users. Design Twenty-five CI users (eight using unilateral CIs, nine using bilateral CIs, and eight using a CI and a hearing aid) were tested on the Arizona Biomedical Institute Sentence Test (AzBio) with a +8 dB signal-to-noise ratio, and on the SMRT. All participants were tested with their clinical programs. Results There was a significant correlation between SMRT and AzBio performance. After a practice block, an improvement of 1 ripple per octave for SMRT corresponded to an improvement of 12.1% for AzBio. Additionally, there was no significant difference in slope or intercept between any of the CI populations. Conclusion The results indicate that performance on the SMRT correlates with speech recognition in noise when measured across unilateral, bilateral, and bimodal CI populations. These results suggest that SMRT scores are strongly associated with speech recognition in noise ability in experienced CI users. Further studies should focus on increasing both the size and diversity of the tested participants, and on determining whether the SMRT technique can be used for early predictions of long-term speech scores, or for evaluating differences among different stimulation strategies or parameter settings.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of the Spectral-Temporally Modulated Ripple Test With the Arizona Biomedical Institute Sentence Test in Cochlear Implant Users

Lawler

Aronoff

2017

Ear &Amp; Hearing

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“…This study aims at assessing the effects of such channel interaction (and resulting spectral resolution) on SoS and voice cue perception in CI listeners by using simultaneous stimulation of different channels. Beyond the purpose of understanding how crucial spectrotemporal cues are for F0, VTL, and SoS perception, there is also a potential benefit in using parallel stimulation, since it was originally proposed in the literature as a method of reducing power consumption (e.g., Büchner, Frohne, Battmer, & Lenarz, 2005;Frijns, Kalkman, Vanpoucke, Bongers, & Briaire, 2009;Langner, Saoji, Büchner, & Nogueira, 2017). One way of achieving this is to decrease the maximum stimulation current required to stimulate the auditory nerve.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Channel Interaction on Vocal Cue Perception in Cochlear Implant Users

Nogueira¹,

Boghdady²,

Langner³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Speech intelligibility in multi-talker settings is challenging for most CI users. One possibility for this limitation is the suboptimal representation of vocal cues in implant processing, such as the fundamental frequency (F0), and the vocal tract length (VTL). Previous studies suggested that while F0 perception depends on both spectral and temporal cues, VTL perception relies largely on spectral cues. To investigate how spectral smearing in CIs affects vocal cue perception in speech-on-speech (SoS) settings, parallel channels were simultaneously stimulated in 14 Advanced Bionics users to simulate channel interaction. Three such patterns were created: Sequential (stimulation of 2 simultaneous electrodes), Paired (4 electrodes), and Triplet stimulation (6 electrodes). F0 and VTL just-noticeable differences (JNDs; task 1), in addition to SoS intelligibility (task 2) and comprehension (task 3) were measured for each stimulation strategy. In tasks 2 and 3, four maskers were used: the same female talker, a male voice obtained by manipulating both F0 and VTL (F0+VTL) of the original female speaker, a voice where only F0 was manipulated, and a voice where only VTL was manipulated. JNDs were measured relative to the original voice for the F0, VTL, and F0+VTL manipulations. When spectral smearing was increased, a significant deterioration in performance was observed for all tasks, with no differences between Sequential and Paired stimulation. These results imply that CI users may tolerate certain amounts of channel interaction without significant reduction in performance on tasks relying on voice perception. This points to possibilities for utilizing parallel stimulation in CIs for reducing power consumption.

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“…Researchers have attempted to alleviate channel interaction effects by using current focusing to more precisely excite the targeted neural regions (Mens and Berenstein, 2005;Berenstein et al, 2008;Srinivasan et al, 2013;Bierer and Litvak, 2016;Langner et al, 2017;de Jong et al, 2019). Currentfocussing methods simultaneously stimulate a number of adjacent electrode channels using a pattern of positive and negative current to control and narrow the shape of the neural excitation profile (Van den Honert and Kelsall, 2007;Bierer, 2007;Bonham and Litvak, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Currentfocussing methods simultaneously stimulate a number of adjacent electrode channels using a pattern of positive and negative current to control and narrow the shape of the neural excitation profile (Van den Honert and Kelsall, 2007;Bierer, 2007;Bonham and Litvak, 2008). However, results for speech perception have been at best mixed, with one study reporting improvements at group level (Srinivasan et al, 2013) while the majority did not find benefits (Mens and Berenstein, 2005;Berenstein et al, 2008;Bierer and Litvak, 2016;Langner et al, 2017;DeVries and Arenberg, 2018;de Jong et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using spectral blurring to assess effects of channel interaction on speech-in-noise perception with cochlear implants

Goehring¹,

Arenberg²,

Carlyon³

2019

Preprint

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Cochlear implant (CI) listeners struggle to understand speech in background noise. Interactions between electrode channels due to current spread increase the masking of speech by noise and lead to difficulties with speech perception. Strategies that reduce channel interaction therefore have the potential to improve speech-in-noise perception by CI listeners, but previous results have been mixed. We investigated the effects of channel interaction on speech-in-noise perception and its association with spectro-temporal acuity in a listening study with 12 CI users. Instead of attempting to reduce channel interaction, we introduced spectral blurring to simulate some of the effects of channel interaction by adjusting the overlap between electrode channels at the input level of the analysis filters or at the output by using several simultaneously-stimulated electrodes per channel. We measured speech reception thresholds in noise as a function of the amount of blurring applied to either all 15 electrode channels or to 5 evenly spaced channels. Performance remained roughly constant as the amount of blurring applied to all channels increased up to some knee point, above which it deteriorated. This knee point differed across listeners in a way that correlated with performance on a non-speech spectro-temporal task, and is proposed here as an individual measure of channel interaction. Surprisingly, even extreme amounts of blurring applied to 5 channels did not affect performance. The effects on speech perception in noise were similar for blurring at the input and at the output of the CI. These results confirm the assumption that CI users make use of a limited number of effective channels, are highly resilient against spectral distortions and can tolerate substantial deviations from their everyday settings without harming their speech perception. These findings may explain the mixed results by strategies that optimized or deactivated a small number of electrodes evenly distributed along the array.

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Adding simultaneous stimulating channels to reduce power consumption in cochlear implants

Cited by 22 publications

References 45 publications

Comparison of the Spectral-Temporally Modulated Ripple Test With the Arizona Biomedical Institute Sentence Test in Cochlear Implant Users

Comparison of the Spectral-Temporally Modulated Ripple Test With the Arizona Biomedical Institute Sentence Test in Cochlear Implant Users

Effect of Channel Interaction on Vocal Cue Perception in Cochlear Implant Users

Using spectral blurring to assess effects of channel interaction on speech-in-noise perception with cochlear implants

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