Institute of Acoustics, University of Applied Sciences Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
Medical Physics and Cluster of Excellence "Hearing4all", Carl-von-Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany.
Int J Audiol. 2023 Jan;62(1):30-43. doi: 10.1080/14992027.2021.2015633. Epub 2021 Dec 28.
Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in spatial scenarios were measured in simulated cochlear implant (CI) listeners with either contralateral normal hearing, or aided hearing impairment (bimodal), and compared to SRTs of real patients, who were measured using the exact same paradigm, to assess goodness of simulation.
CI listening was simulated using a vocoder incorporating actual CI signal processing and physiologic details of electric stimulation on one side. Unprocessed signals or simulation of aided moderate or profound hearing impairment was used contralaterally. Three spatial speech-in-noise scenarios were tested using virtual acoustics to assess spatial release from masking (SRM) and combined benefit.
Eleven normal-hearing listeners participated in the experiment.
For contralateral normal and aided moderately impaired hearing, bilaterally assessed SRTs were not statistically different from unilateral SRTs of the better ear, indicating "better-ear-listening". Combined benefit was only found for contralateral profound impaired hearing. As in patients, SRM was highest for contralateral normal hearing and decreased systematically with more severe simulated impairment. Comparison to actual patients showed good reproduction of SRTs, SRM, and better-ear-listening.
The simulations reproduced better-ear-listening as in patients and suggest that combined benefit in spatial scenes predominantly occurs when both ears show poor speech-in-noise performance.
在模拟的人工耳蜗（CI）听力者中测量空间场景下的言语接受阈（SRT），这些听力者一侧具有对侧正常听力或助听听力障碍（双模式），并与使用完全相同的范式测量的真实患者的 SRT 进行比较，以评估模拟的效果。
使用结合了实际 CI 信号处理和电刺激生理细节的声码器来模拟 CI 听力，在一侧使用未处理的信号或模拟助听中度或重度听力障碍。使用虚拟声学测试了三种空间语音噪声场景，以评估空间掩蔽释放（SRM）和综合收益。
11 名正常听力的听众参与了实验。
对于对侧正常和助听中度听力障碍，双侧评估的 SRT 与更好耳朵的单侧 SRT 没有统计学差异，表明存在“更好耳朵听力”。仅在对侧深度听力障碍时才发现综合收益。与患者一样，SRM 对于对侧正常听力最高，随着模拟损伤的严重程度增加而系统降低。与实际患者的比较表明，SRT、SRM 和更好耳朵听力的再现效果良好。
模拟再现了患者的“更好耳朵听力”，并表明在空间场景中，综合收益主要发生在双耳都表现出较差的语音噪声性能时。
