Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
Ear Hear. 2020 Jan/Feb;41(1):72-81. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000000735.
To examine vowel perception based on dynamic formant transition and/or static formant pattern cues in children with hearing loss while using their hearing aids or cochlear implants. We predicted that the sensorineural hearing loss would degrade formant transitions more than static formant patterns, and that shortening the duration of cues would cause more difficulty for vowel identification for these children than for their normal-hearing peers.
A repeated-measures, between-group design was used. Children 4 to 9 years of age from a university hearing services clinic who were fit for hearing aids (13 children) or who wore cochlear implants (10 children) participated. Chronologically age-matched children with normal hearing served as controls (23 children). Stimuli included three naturally produced syllables (/ba/, /bi/, and /bu/), which were presented either in their entirety or segmented to isolate the formant transition or the vowel static formant center. The stimuli were presented to listeners via loudspeaker in the sound field. Aided participants wore their own devices and listened with their everyday settings. Participants chose the vowel presented by selecting from corresponding pictures on a computer screen.
Children with hearing loss were less able to use shortened transition or shortened vowel centers to identify vowels as compared to their normal-hearing peers. Whole syllable and initial transition yielded better identification performance than the vowel center for /ɑ/, but not for /i/ or /u/.
The children with hearing loss may require a longer time window than children with normal hearing to integrate vowel cues over time because of altered peripheral encoding in spectrotemporal domains. Clinical implications include cognizance of the importance of vowel perception when developing habilitative programs for children with hearing loss.
研究聋童使用助听器或人工耳蜗时基于动态共振峰过渡和/或静态共振峰模式线索的元音感知能力。我们预测，感音神经性听力损失会比静态共振峰模式更严重地影响共振峰过渡，并且缩短线索时长会比正常听力儿童更难识别这些儿童的元音。
采用重复测量、组间设计。来自大学听力服务诊所的 4 至 9 岁的儿童，适合佩戴助听器（13 名儿童）或人工耳蜗（10 名儿童），他们都参与了研究。年龄匹配的正常听力儿童作为对照组（23 名儿童）。刺激物包括三个自然产生的音节（/ba/、/bi/和/bu/），它们可以完整呈现，也可以分段呈现，以隔离共振峰过渡或元音的静态共振峰中心。听众通过扬声器在声场中听到这些刺激。佩戴助听设备的参与者可以使用他们日常的设置来聆听。参与者通过在电脑屏幕上选择相应的图片来选择呈现的元音。
与正常听力的同龄人相比，听力损失的儿童在使用缩短的过渡或缩短的元音中心来识别元音方面的能力较差。与元音中心相比，整个音节和初始过渡可以产生更好的识别效果，适用于/a/，但不适用于/i/或/u/。
由于在频谱时间域中改变了外围编码，听力损失的儿童可能需要比正常听力儿童更长的时间窗口来随时间整合元音线索。临床意义包括在为听力损失儿童制定康复计划时，认识到元音感知的重要性。
