Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
BMC Neurosci. 2012 Sep 20;13:113. doi: 10.1186/1471-2202-13-113.
Emotionally salient information in spoken language can be provided by variations in speech melody (prosody) or by emotional semantics. Emotional prosody is essential to convey feelings through speech. In sensori-neural hearing loss, impaired speech perception can be improved by cochlear implants (CIs). Aim of this study was to investigate the performance of normal-hearing (NH) participants on the perception of emotional prosody with vocoded stimuli. Semantically neutral sentences with emotional (happy, angry and neutral) prosody were used. Sentences were manipulated to simulate two CI speech-coding strategies: the Advance Combination Encoder (ACE) and the newly developed Psychoacoustic Advanced Combination Encoder (PACE). Twenty NH adults were asked to recognize emotional prosody from ACE and PACE simulations. Performance was assessed using behavioral tests and event-related potentials (ERPs).
Behavioral data revealed superior performance with original stimuli compared to the simulations. For simulations, better recognition for happy and angry prosody was observed compared to the neutral. Irrespective of simulated or unsimulated stimulus type, a significantly larger P200 event-related potential was observed for happy prosody after sentence onset than the other two emotions. Further, the amplitude of P200 was significantly more positive for PACE strategy use compared to the ACE strategy.
Results suggested P200 peak as an indicator of active differentiation and recognition of emotional prosody. Larger P200 peak amplitude for happy prosody indicated importance of fundamental frequency (F0) cues in prosody processing. Advantage of PACE over ACE highlighted a privileged role of the psychoacoustic masking model in improving prosody perception. Taken together, the study emphasizes on the importance of vocoded simulation to better understand the prosodic cues which CI users may be utilizing.
口语中的情感相关信息可以通过语音旋律（韵律）或情感语义的变化来提供。情感韵律对于通过语音传达情感至关重要。在感音神经性听力损失中，人工耳蜗（CI）可以改善言语感知。本研究的目的是研究正常听力（NH）参与者对语音编码刺激下情感韵律感知的表现。使用具有情感（高兴、生气和中性）韵律的语义中性句子。通过操纵句子来模拟两种 CI 语音编码策略：Advance Combination Encoder（ACE）和新开发的 Psychoacoustic Advanced Combination Encoder（PACE）。20 名 NH 成年人被要求从 ACE 和 PACE 模拟中识别情感韵律。使用行为测试和事件相关电位（ERP）评估性能。
行为数据显示，与模拟相比，原始刺激的表现更好。对于模拟，与中性相比，高兴和生气的韵律识别更好。无论模拟或非模拟刺激类型如何，与其他两种情绪相比，句子起始后，高兴的韵律会引起明显更大的 P200 事件相关电位。此外，与 ACE 策略相比，PACE 策略的 P200 振幅明显更积极。
结果表明 P200 峰值是情感韵律主动区分和识别的指标。对于高兴的韵律，P200 峰值幅度较大表明基频（F0）线索在韵律处理中的重要性。PACE 优于 ACE 的优势突出了心理声学掩蔽模型在改善韵律感知方面的重要作用。综上所述，该研究强调了语音编码模拟的重要性，以更好地理解 CI 用户可能利用的韵律线索。
