Seminars in Hearin最新文献

{"title":"Comparisons of Spectra 22 Performance in Noise with and without an Additional Noise Reduction Preprocessor","authors":"V. Margo, Christopher Schweitzer, Gail Feinman","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083040","url":null,"abstract":"This paper describes a two-microphone, software-programmable noise-reduction de vice that was interfaced to the Nucleus Spec tra 22 speech processor to act as a front-end noise-reduction preprocessor. The develop ment for the portable processor and the noise-reduction algorithm, more formally known as beamforming, was originally moti vated by complaints from individuals who use hearing aids. These individuals com plain about a deterioration in performance with increasing levels of background noise. Since individuals who use cochlear implants have similar complaints, it was a natural ex tension to pose the question: \"What benefit, if any, would the beamforming algorithm provide to individuals who use cochlear im plants?\" To arrive at an answer, the audio in terface to the noise reduction device was modified (to make it compatible to the Nu cleus Spectra 22 speech processor), and a set of precursory subject experiments were per formed. 1 The precursory studies were spe cific to the Nucleus 22 Channel Cochlear Implant and the Spectra 22 speech proces sor, both manufactured by Cochlear Corpo ration and Cochlear Limited. The noise-reduction device used in the precursory studies is known as the Alpha II and is devel oped by AudioLogic Inc. Eleven English-speaking subjects par ticipated in a series of sessions during which they were tested with their own Spectra 22 speech processor and with the Alpha II beam-forming algorithm acting to preprocess the input data to their device. The beamform ing","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126675062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Application of Binaural Models to Evaluate “Beamforming” in Digital Hearing AIDS","authors":"Christopher Schweitzer","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083039","url":null,"abstract":"It should come as no surprise to the reader that a great deal of attention and effort in hear ing aid research has been devoted to methods to reduce the interference of noise for hear ing aid users. This has been a repeated priority topic of \"requests for proposals\" for research funding from the National Institutes of Deafness and other Communicat ion Disorders (1994, 1995, 1996 listed priorities in Public Health Services Small Business Innovative Research request for proposals), and dozens of articles and papers in recent years have addressed the issue (e.g., Fabry, 1991; Killion, 1993; Van Tasell, 1993; Weiss & Neuman, 1993). In engineering terms, the noise problem for hear ing aids can be thought of as one of target-to-jammer ratios (TJRs), where the target is the desired speech signal (for a particular moment ) and any other interfering sounds are deemed to be jammers. Saying that a poor TJR makes conversation difficult is another way to say that noise interferes with hear ing a desired signal. Since hearingimpaired listeners generally require higher TJRs than normal hear ing listeners (Plomp, 1978, 1986; Tillman, Carhart, & Olsen, 1970; Van Tasell, 1993; Welze-Mueller & Sattler, 1984), the problem often has been made worse by simple amplification schemes that perceptually seem to increase the j ammers disproportionately more than the desired targets. The situation is greatly aggravated by the fact that \"noise\" is often a moment-tomomen t decision by the listener and not a specific spectrally defined or acoustically constant entity. Figure 1 provides an illustration of the t ime-dependent nature on a listener's decision of whether a particular sound is a noise j a m m e r or a desirable target signal. For example, for many hearing aid users the spouse's voice is generally a desired target. But in those instances when the spouse is conversing with someone else and the listener has turned his or her attention to the voice on the television, the spouse's voice obviously becomes a j a m m e r that would ideally be reduced by an intelligent hearing device. This situation is true for many other daily sounds. Another example might be the noise of an automobile's starter cranking to initiate combustion. This is an important signal when turning the key and the hearing of it informs the driver when to release the key from the start position. But if someone else is starting the car, the same acoustic pattern is entirely unwanted noise. This aspect of the situation dependency of noise has probably received insufficient attention by clinicians and hearing aid engineers. The desire to move auditory attention within a room containing","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114372848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Physiology of Binaural Hearing","authors":"L. Hood","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083034","url":null,"abstract":"The literature contains extensive anatomical, physiological, and behavioral evidence that the two ears work together. The central auditory nervous system receives signals from two external sources, the left and right ears, and then, based upon the nature of the stimulation to each ear, neural signals are relayed and, in some cases modified, and distributed over multiple, complex connections to higher centers in the brain. The descending, or efferent, pathways also influence encoding of information. As Brugge (1992) summarizes, \"sound perception involves . . . sensory coding, temporal and spatial transformation, divergent and convergent projections, parallel and serial processing, localization of function and neuronal plasticity\" (p. 1). Thus, the nature of the stimulation to each ear results in cascading effects throughout the central auditory system. The following discussion provides an overview of central auditory pathway structure and function of the binaural auditory system. The interested reader is referred to excellent current discussions of the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of the central auditory pathways by Webster (1992, 1995), Warr (1992), Brugge (1992), and Irvine (1992). NEURAL RESPONSES","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115951758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fundamentals of Directional Hearing","authors":"W. Yost, R. Dye","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083035","url":null,"abstract":"Determining the nature of objects in our world is a basic necessity of life. Hear ing allows us to de te rmine objects in our world based on the sounds that they produce . There are several propert ies of a sound that might contr ibute to this process (see Yost, 1992, for a review). For instance, sounds from objects at different locations in space present different acoustic pat terns to the ears of a listener. Listeners can use these differences in sound pat tern to locate a source, and one 's ability to locate the source aids in de te rmining its identity. Tha t is, the auditory system can use the acoustic information that arrives at our ears to de termine the location of that source. This article will review some of the fundamental facts concerning sound localization. There are several recent publications that provide more detailed reviews of directional hear ing than we will be able to provide in this article (Blauert, 1983; Gilkey & Anderson, 1997; Wightman & Kistler, 1993; Yost & Gourevitch, 1987). Objects are located in three spatial dimensions and can be located in these three dimensions based on the sounds they produce. Figure 1 describes the spatial dimensions as they will be used in this chapter. Space is described relative to a listener sitting at the center of a sphere. Depth (range) is defined by the radius of the sphere (the distance from the listener to the sphere's boundary) . Azimuth (horizontal angle) is defined by dividing the circle a round the listener into 360°, such that 0°is straight ahead, +90° is directly out from the right ear of the listener, 180° is directly behind the listener, and —90° (or 270°) is directly out from the left ear. A vertical angle (elevation) is defined by an arc that rises from below the listener to above the listener, such that 0° is again in front, +90° is overhead, and —90° (or 270°) is below. Thus, the position of any object in space can be specified by three numbers: range distance, azimuthal angle, and vertical angle.","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131533248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Binaural Hearing for Understanding Speech in Noise with Hearing Aids","authors":"J. Agnew","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083037","url":null,"abstract":"O n e of the biggest auditory challenges for hearing aid wearers is the effective understanding of speech in noisy surroundings . The corresponding challenge for researchers and clinicians is to develop and fit effective wearable methods of auditory enhancemen t that optimize speech communicat ion u n d e r these condit ions. Hear ing in noise has always been a difficult p rob lem for hearing-impaired listeners, and it ranks as one of the c o m m o n complaints of hear ing aid wearers. Various fitting schemes and processing algorithms have been developed to try to he lp hear ing aid wearers extract speech information from noisy backgrounds; however, these efforts have resulted in varying degrees of success. This article discusses the utilization of residual binaural hear ing as a me thod for improving speech intelligibility and presents some results related to testing this methodology for sound quality and speech intelligibility in noise. To place these efforts in perspective, it is first appropriate to review some of the fundamental issues and problems in the unders tanding of speech in undesired background noise. SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127360922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comprehensive Program Development: The Ottawa Model","authors":"Elizabeth M. Fitzpatrick","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083031","url":null,"abstract":"Early identification of hearing loss in children without early intervention offers little advantage to the child and family. Audiology and habilitation together constitute the pillars of comprehensive care for children who have hearing problems. This was the principle by which the Audiology Service at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa, Canada, was established in 1974 and this concept has continued to guide the evolvement of all programs in the Audiology Service. Audiology is an allied health service in a 150-bed pediatric hospital providing care for children from birth through to 18 years of age. The hospital is a publicly funded regional center for pediatric health care, servicing a population of approximately 200,000 children, in two Canadian provinces, Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. The Audiology Service is responsible for all diagnostic hearing services and for speech and language intervention for children who are diagnosed with hearing impairments. The hospital is the only publicly funded facility providing pediatric audiology services. Private audiologists in the community may assess children age 5 and over but usually refer the child to the hospital if there is a hearing problem requiring management. Health services are covered under provincial health insurance, therefore any insured child may access the service. All initial referrals to the hospital are made by a physician. Departmental statistics show that the number of patient visits range from 5000 to 6000 annually. Clinical staff currently include 5.8 full-time equivalent audiologists and 2.0 equivalent full-time auditory-verbal therapists. (Equivalent full-time is defined as 37.5 paid hours per week.) In addition, there is a 0.4 equivalent full-time Audiology assistant assigned primarily to the evoked potentials testing program. The mandate of the Audiology Service is to provide diagnostic hearing assessments for children and habilitative care for those who are diagnosed with a hearing problem. The Audiology Service also participates in research projects and teaching. Diagnostic program components include conventional audiometry, and auditory brain stem response audiometry. Rehabilitative services include the selection and fitting of amplification, cochlear implant assessment and follow-up, and auditory-verbal therapy. Therapy is offered to all preschool children who receive amplification and to children of all ages who receive a cochlear implant. There is a close liaison with many other clinical services in the hospital, particularly the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Clinic, which is located adjacent to the Audiology Clinic. An estimated 60% of the diagnostic patient visits are referred by the","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114903472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Case Study: Speech/Language Development of an Auditory-Verbal Deaf Child","authors":"Marian M. Ernst","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083032","url":null,"abstract":"Sara Ann, almost 2 years old, had in every way seemed to be developing normally, except that she was not talking. She had a 6-year-old sister, a pleasant, nondemanding child who also had not been very verbal as a toddler either. Even though the family was aware of the presence of the gene for Waardenburg Syndrome, there had never been a case of deafness in the family. And Sara Ann did appear to hear. She responded to a tuning fork in the doctor's office; she heard the lawn mower; and she knew when her father drove up in the car and would go running to meet him before he appeared at the door. The recognition of the presence of profound hearing loss came in dramatic fashion. While visiting another family, a large Labrador suddenly barked very loudly, startling everyone in the room, except Sara Ann, the person closest to the dog. Hearing tests revealed some good lowfrequency hearing, which quickly dropped off when charted on an audiogram. The mystery of her sometimes response to certain familiar sounds was a mystery no longer. SELECTING A COMMUNICATION METHOD","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124396394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using Available Resources in Programs for Hearing-Impaired Children Overseas","authors":"M. Clark","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083028","url":null,"abstract":"There is a worldwide outcry about lack of resources in almost every area of life. Wi thout doub t we could all do more if we had more resources and this is particularly t rue in our special field of providing adequate services for hearing-impaired children. Nevertheless, one of the biggest lessons the author has learned since becoming involved in in ternat ional work, especially in developing countries, is jus t how m u c h can be achieved with amazingly limited resources. Our concepts of needs and of resources are relative to our s tandards of living. If an area has no electricity with which to recharge batteries for FM systems and no funds with which to provide the necessary battery back u p for such a system, then the lack of an FM system is no t something on which one dwells. If there is no regular supply of water, steps have to be taken to ensure that there is a sufficient storage facility to supply water for the making of ear molds at any time. Does it surprise you to know that in the middle of the Anatolian Plain in central Turkey no child has to wait for longer than 24 hours to receive a well-fitting ear mold, but that in more affluent countries, 2 or even 3 weeks may elapse between the taking of the impression for the mold and the delivery of the mold to the child. The constant outcry about lack of resources and poor facilities of one kind or another can often mask more basic problems. What really counts in the end is the quality of the human resources who manage all the other. Do they have their priorities right? As we are well aware, no t all hearingimpaired chi ldren in \"developed countries\" have the opportuni ty to reach a level of spoken language that is functional for life in society at large. All too few of them come th rough to a level of academic success that is compatible with their innate ability. Yet, in some \"developing countries,\" due to discontent with their existing provision or lack of any provision, to their having a vision of a bet ter system and the courage, determination, and tenacity to implement that system, professionals are using their resources in such a way that they are bui lding u p programs that surpass in quality, many of the programs in \"developed countries.\" This is a far cry from the attitudes of some professionals from more affluent countries who feel that anything is bet ter than no th ing for poore r countries and who dabble there , offering only second best. The au thor has always held a contrary view. H e r exper ience is proving that, in difficult situations where resources are really scarce, it is possible to p roduce high-quality programs provided that a long-term plan is made . This must be","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115477257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Overview of Educational Provision for Hearing-Impaired Children from 1950 to Present Day","authors":"M. Clark","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083026","url":null,"abstract":"Opportunities for hearing-impaired child ren to develop fluent spoken language have never been so great as they are today. And yet, a l though large numbers of young adults with severe and profound hear ing losses are en ter ing society with a fluency of spoken language that allows them to live independent ly in a world that consists mainly of hear ing people , it has to be said that equally large numbers are not . To under s t and the present-day situation in the educat ion of hearing-impaired chi ldren, it is really necessary to consider it in light of the major developments in the field since the end of World War II. Those who were deaf chi ldren in the late 1940s and early 1950s are adults today, and many of them resent the type of \"oral\" educat ion that they received and that sent them out into the world ill equ ipped linguistically. They are anxious that today's chi ldren with hear ing impa i rment should have bet ter t r ea tment and bet ter opportuni t ies than they had, and many are demand ing a say in the educat ional provision made for the hear ing impaired. What is no t always clearly under s tood is the difference that advances in the field of medicine , technology, audiology and psycholinguistics have made to the opportuni t ies available to hearingimpaired chi ldren in the 1990s. Today's oral programs, which have the use of hearing as their base line, are as different from the old \"oral\" programs as these were from signing programs.","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133912933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effective Interaction and the Development of Spoken Language in Hearing-Impaired Children","authors":"M. Clark","doi":"10.1055/s-0028-1083030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1083030","url":null,"abstract":"T h e oppor tuni ty to be involved in some dep th in auditory programs for hearing-impaired chi ldren in 10 countries over a per iod of 9 years has been a t r emendous privilege. T h e contrast between a wealthy country like J a p a n and a tiny povertystricken island like Rodrigues (10 miles long X 4 miles wide), set by itself in the middle of the Indian Ocean, could no t be greater. Nor could the contrast between the affluent cities of Germany and the villages of the high Andes or of the jung le areas of Ecuador. It is certainly t rue that each situation is un ique and that plans to develop work within each area have to be tailored to fit that area's specific needs , but, in relation to work with hearing-impaired children, what stands out is no t the differences bu t the similarities. It is so exciting to discover that wherever in the world residual hear ing is being used to the full, in an envi ronment in which parents and professionals work as par tners to motivate chi ldren to communicate, hearing-impaired chi ldren are learning to listen and to develop spoken language of a quality that is functional for life in society at large (Clark, 1989). Such findings are a testimony to the fact that hearing-impaired chi ldren do have the capacity to develop fluency of spoken language in their mo the r tongue in the same way as their hear ing counterpar ts , if they have the same opportunity. It is the purpose of this paper to examine what that oppor tunity is. In o ther words it is impor tan t to look at what constitutes a language enabling environment (Tough, 1977) for normally hear ing children, and then to examine how best such an envi ronment can be provided for those who have a hear ing loss. Tough describes such an envi ronment as a situation that encompasses activities that motivate a child to communica te and in which dialogue can play a major role in the fostering and developing of language.","PeriodicalId":119844,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearin","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121326891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}