Mind and Brain Institute, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Army Hearing Division, US Army Public Health Center, Aberdeen, MD, USA.
Sci Rep. 2017 May 19;7(1):2196. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-02429-1.
For cochlear implant users, combined electro-acoustic stimulation (EAS) significantly improves the performance. However, there are many more users who do not have any functional residual acoustic hearing at low frequencies. Because tactile sensation also operates in the same low frequencies (<500 Hz) as the acoustic hearing in EAS, we propose electro-tactile stimulation (ETS) to improve cochlear implant performance. In ten cochlear implant users, a tactile aid was applied to the index finger that converted voice fundamental frequency into tactile vibrations. Speech recognition in noise was compared for cochlear implants alone and for the bimodal ETS condition. On average, ETS improved speech reception thresholds by 2.2 dB over cochlear implants alone. Nine of the ten subjects showed a positive ETS effect ranging from 0.3 to 7.0 dB, which was similar to the amount of the previously-reported EAS benefit. The comparable results indicate similar neural mechanisms that underlie both the ETS and EAS effects. The positive results suggest that the complementary auditory and tactile modes also be used to enhance performance for normal hearing listeners and automatic speech recognition for machines.
对于人工耳蜗使用者来说，联合电声刺激（EAS）显著提高了性能。然而，还有更多的使用者在低频时没有任何功能剩余的声学听力。由于触觉也在 EAS 的声学听力相同的低频（<500Hz）下运作，我们提出电触觉刺激（ETS）来改善人工耳蜗的性能。在十名人工耳蜗使用者中，将一种触觉辅助器应用于食指，将语音基频转换为触觉振动。比较了单独使用人工耳蜗和双模态 ETS 条件下的噪声中的语音识别。平均而言，ETS 比单独使用人工耳蜗提高了 2.2dB 的语音接收阈值。十个受试者中有九个表现出积极的 ETS 效应，范围从 0.3 到 7.0dB，与之前报告的 EAS 益处相当。可比的结果表明，ETS 和 EAS 效应的基础是相似的神经机制。积极的结果表明，听觉和触觉模式也可以被用来增强正常听力听众的性能和机器的自动语音识别。
