Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN.
J Am Acad Audiol. 2020 Jul;31(7):506-512. doi: 10.3766/jaaa.19025. Epub 2020 Sep 2.
Despite improvements in cochlear implant (CI) technology, pediatric CI recipients continue to have more difficulty understanding speech than their typically hearing peers in background noise. A variety of strategies have been evaluated to help mitigate this disparity, such as signal processing, remote microphone technology, and microphone placement. Previous studies regarding microphone placement used speech processors that are now dated, and most studies investigating the improvement of speech recognition in background noise included adult listeners only.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of microphone location and beamforming technology on speech understanding for pediatric CI recipients in noise.
A prospective, repeated-measures, within-participant design was used to compare performance across listening conditions.
A total of nine children (aged 6.6 to 15.3 years) with at least one Advanced Bionics CI were recruited for this study.
The Basic English Lexicon Sentences and AzBio Sentences were presented at 0o azimuth at 65-dB SPL in +5 signal-to-noise ratio noise presented from seven speakers using the R-SPACE system (Advanced Bionics, Valencia, CA). Performance was compared across three omnidirectional microphone configurations (processor microphone, T-Mic 2, and processor + T-Mic 2) and two directional microphone configurations (UltraZoom and auto UltraZoom). The two youngest participants were not tested in the directional microphone configurations.
No significant differences were found between the various omnidirectional microphone configurations. UltraZoom provided significant benefit over all omnidirectional microphone configurations (T-Mic 2, = 0.004, processor microphone, < 0.001, and processor microphone + T-Mic 2, = 0.018) but was not significantly different from auto UltraZoom ( = 0.176).
All omnidirectional microphone configurations yielded similar performance, suggesting that a child's listening performance in noise will not be compromised by choosing the microphone configuration best suited for the child. UltraZoom (adaptive beamformer) yielded higher performance than all omnidirectional microphones in moderate background noise for adolescents aged 9 to 15 years. The implications of these data suggest that for older children who are able to reliably use manual controls, UltraZoom will yield significantly higher performance in background noise when the target is in front of the listener.
尽管耳蜗植入（CI）技术有所改进，但儿科 CI 接受者在背景噪声中理解言语的能力仍不如其典型听力同龄人。已经评估了多种策略来帮助减轻这种差异，例如信号处理、远程麦克风技术和麦克风放置。以前关于麦克风位置的研究使用的是现在已经过时的语音处理器，并且大多数研究都是针对成人听众在背景噪声中提高言语识别能力的。
本研究旨在调查麦克风位置和波束成形技术对儿科 CI 接受者在噪声中言语理解的影响。
采用前瞻性、重复测量、参与者内设计来比较不同听力条件下的表现。
共有 9 名儿童（年龄 6.6 至 15.3 岁）参与了这项研究，他们均至少使用过一个先进仿生耳蜗。
在+5 信噪比噪声中，以 65dB SPL 在 0o 方位呈现基本英语词汇句子和 AzBio 句子，使用 R-SPACE 系统（先进仿生公司，加利福尼亚州瓦伦西亚）从七个扬声器发出。在三种全向麦克风配置（处理器麦克风、T-Mic 2 和处理器+T-Mic 2）和两种定向麦克风配置（UltraZoom 和自动 UltraZoom）之间进行了性能比较。两个最年轻的参与者未在定向麦克风配置中进行测试。
各种全向麦克风配置之间没有发现显著差异。UltraZoom 提供了比所有全向麦克风配置（T-Mic 2， = 0.004，处理器麦克风， < 0.001，和处理器麦克风+T-Mic 2， = 0.018）都有显著的优势，但与自动 UltraZoom （ = 0.176）没有显著差异。
所有全向麦克风配置都产生了相似的性能，这表明选择最适合儿童的麦克风配置不会影响儿童在噪声中的听力表现。在中等背景噪声中，对于 9 至 15 岁的青少年，UltraZoom（自适应波束成形器）的性能优于所有全向麦克风。这些数据的意义表明，对于能够可靠使用手动控制的年龄较大的儿童，当目标位于听众前方时，UltraZoom 将在背景噪声中产生显著更高的性能。
