Huang Wanting, Wong Lena L N, Chen Fei
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Unit of Human Communication, Development, and Information Sciences, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
Brain Sci. 2022 Mar 26;12(4):443. doi: 10.3390/brainsci12040443.
Fundamental frequency (F0) provides the primary acoustic cue for lexical tone perception in tonal languages but remains poorly represented in cochlear implant (CI) systems. Currently, there is still a lack of understanding of sensitivity to F0 change in CI users who speak tonal languages. In the present study, just-noticeable differences (JNDs) of F0 contour and F0 level changes in Mandarin-speaking children with CIs were measured and compared with those in their age-matched normal-hearing (NH) peers. Results showed that children with CIs demonstrated significantly larger JND of F0 contour (JND-C) change and F0 level (JND-L) change compared to NH children. Further within-group comparison revealed that the JND-C change was significantly smaller than the JND-L change among children with CIs, whereas the opposite pattern was observed among NH children. No significant correlations were seen between JND-C change/JND-L change and age at implantation /duration of CI use. The contrast between children with CIs and NH children in sensitivity to F0 contour and F0 level change suggests different mechanisms of F0 processing in these two groups as a result of different hearing experiences.
基频（F0）为声调语言中词汇声调感知提供了主要的声学线索，但在人工耳蜗（CI）系统中的表现仍然很差。目前，对于说声调语言的CI使用者对F0变化的敏感度仍缺乏了解。在本研究中，测量了说普通话的CI儿童F0轮廓和F0水平变化的恰可察觉差异（JND），并与年龄匹配的正常听力（NH）同龄人进行比较。结果显示，与NH儿童相比，CI儿童表现出显著更大的F0轮廓变化（JND-C）和F0水平变化（JND-L）的JND。进一步的组内比较显示，CI儿童中JND-C变化显著小于JND-L变化，而在NH儿童中观察到相反的模式。JND-C变化/JND-L变化与植入年龄/CI使用时间之间未发现显著相关性。CI儿童和NH儿童在对F0轮廓和F0水平变化的敏感度上的差异表明，由于听力经历不同，这两组在F0处理机制上存在差异。
