Pfingst Bryan E, Xu Li
Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0506, USA.
Audiol Neurootol. 2005 Nov-Dec;10(6):331-41. doi: 10.1159/000087350. Epub 2005 Aug 5.
Intersubject variability in perception is a prominent characteristic of people with cochlear implants. This study characterized intersubject differences using simple metrics based on psychophysical measures: maximum comfortable loudness levels (C levels) and dynamic ranges (DRs). In a group of 17 subjects, we assessed across-site variation (ASV) and across-site mean (ASM) values of C levels and DRs for bipolar (BP) and monopolar (MP) stimulation, and examined the relation of these metrics to speech recognition across subjects. Significant negative correlations with speech recognition were found for ASVs of C levels for BP stimulation; i.e., subjects with high ASVs of BP C levels had poor speech recognition. Positive correlations with speech recognition were found for ASMs of C levels and ASMs of DRs for both BP and MP stimulation; i.e., subjects with high mean C levels and large mean DRs had better speech recognition. Thus, these psychophysical metrics are effective for diagnosis of individual differences in performance of subjects with cochlear implants. Furthermore, they point to some potentially useful treatment procedures.
人工耳蜗植入者之间感知的个体差异是一个显著特征。本研究使用基于心理物理学测量的简单指标来表征个体差异：最大舒适响度水平（C水平）和动态范围（DR）。在一组17名受试者中，我们评估了双极（BP）和单极（MP）刺激下C水平和DR的跨部位变异（ASV）和跨部位均值（ASM）值，并研究了这些指标与受试者语音识别之间的关系。发现BP刺激下C水平的ASV与语音识别存在显著负相关；即BP C水平ASV高的受试者语音识别能力较差。BP和MP刺激下C水平的ASM以及DR的ASM与语音识别均呈正相关；即平均C水平高且平均DR大的受试者语音识别能力更好。因此，这些心理物理学指标对于诊断人工耳蜗植入受试者的个体表现差异是有效的。此外，它们还指出了一些潜在有用的治疗方法。
