Inside Gallaudet
Cochlear implant research shows promise in helping users better recognize tone and emotions of speakers
 Photo: Rhea Kennedy |
| Dr. Xin Luo, from the Department of Auditory Implants and Perception at the House Ear Institute, presents on his research on cochlear implants. |
Thought-provoking research taking place in cochlear implant technology to better convey the emotions and other subtleties of a speaker to the implant user was reported by a scientist undertaking these studies at a September 5 lecture sponsored by the Department of Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences.
Dr. Xin Luo, from the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles, Calif., presented the results of his research to the campus community in a talk entitled “Better Recognition of Supra-segmental Speech Information with Cochlear Implants.” Luo’s presentation focused on an important limitation of current CI devices and explored some strategies that may be used to address it.
Luo reported that “supra-segmental” speech features such as changes in vocal pitch, duration, and intensity are not well transmitted by current cochlear implants. Supra-segmental features help convey the emotional state of the talker in English and tone recognition in languages like Chinese where syllables that are phonetically identical carry different meanings, depending upon the tonal pattern, i.e., flat, rising, falling/rising, or falling. Luo’s research was conducted by simulating cochlear implant speech processing acoustically and carrying out experiments exploring the auditory recognition of vocal emotional states (happy, excited, sad, etc.) and Chinese tones.
The results of a possible strategy to enhance perception of Chinese syllables by modifying their tone patterns using computer software were also reported by Luo. The software enhances the pitch patterns of Chinese syllables with intensity patterns, which are more clearly conveyed by implants. The strategy improved tone recognition while preserving vowel recognition, and thus has the potential to be useful in future speech processing strategies.
Finally, the integration of information from a hearing aid in one ear and a cochlear implant in the other was explored as a possible strategy for enhancement of supra-segmental cues for CI users. The results indicated that there is good potential for this approach, and future research is likely to focus on the use of “electro-acoustic” hearing in enhancing vocal-emotional cues and Chinese tone recognition in real CI users.
While the simulation studies reported by Luo used research participants who do not use cochlear implants, the results have important implications for future research with cochlear implant users, and will help direct his future research efforts.
If you have any questions about this lecture and want to know more, contact Dr. Matthew Bakke.
Posted: 7 Sep 2007
