Ruijuan Dong

Music and lexical tone perception in Chinese adult cochlear implant users.

The present studys aim was to assess the music perception ability for Chinese adult cochlear implant users and to investigate the correlation between music and Mandarin‐Chinese lexical tone perception.

Mandarin lexical tone recognition in sensorineural hearing-impaired listeners and cochlear implant users

Abstract Conclusions: As the hearing loss becomes more severe, the tone recognition performance of hearing-impaired listeners gradually but slowly reduces. The tone recognition performance of cochlear implant listeners is below or close to the performance of severely hearing-impaired listeners. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the Mandarin lexical tone recognition performance of sensorineural hearing-impaired listeners and post-lingually deafened cochlear implant users. Methods: Tone recognition performance was measured for 30 normal-hearing subjects, 41sensorineural hearing-impaired listeners, and 12 cochlear implant users using 128 monosyllables recorded by a male and a female adult native Mandarin speaker. Results: The results indicated that the accuracy of tone recognition was 99.3%, 96.4%, 93.7%, 83.9%, and 81.0% for the normal-hearing, moderate, moderate to severe, severely hearing-impaired, and cochlear implant subjects, respectively. For the hearing-impaired subjects, a significantly negative correlation was observed between tone recognition performance and the audiometric hearing thresholds. For cochlear implant subjects, Tone 3 was the easiest one to perceive and Tone 2 was the hardest one to perceive. They tended to misperceive Tone 1 as Tone 2, and misperceive Tone 2 as Tones 1 and 3.

The development of auditory skills in infants with isolated Large Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome after cochlear implantation

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the auditory performance of infants with isolated Large Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome (LVAS) after cochlear implantation, compare their performance with those of infants with a normal inner ear, and establish a database of auditory development. METHOD 435 infants with congenital severe to profound hearing loss participated in this study. 62 infants in group A were diagnosed with isolated LVAS. 373 infants in group B had a normal inner ear. Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) was used to evaluate the development of auditory skills. RESULTS The mean scores for auditory ability showed no significant difference between groups A and B. The mean scores for the three different auditory skills increased significantly over time. The differences were statistically significant in mean scores among the three different auditory skills for group B. CONCLUSION Auditory skills of infants with isolated LVAS developed rapidly after cochlear implantation, in a similar manner to those of infants with a normal inner ear. Cochlear implantation is an effective interventional approach and an established therapeutic option for infants with isolated LVAS.

The Role of Temporal Envelope and Fine Structure in Mandarin Lexical Tone Perception in Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder

Temporal information in a signal can be partitioned into temporal envelope (E) and fine structure (FS). Fine structure is important for lexical tone perception for normal-hearing (NH) listeners, and listeners with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) have an impaired ability to use FS in lexical tone perception due to the reduced frequency resolution. The present study was aimed to assess which of the acoustic aspects (E or FS) played a more important role in lexical tone perception in subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) and to determine whether it was the deficit in temporal resolution or frequency resolution that might lead to more detrimental effects on FS processing in pitch perception. Fifty-eight native Mandarin Chinese-speaking subjects (27 with ANSD, 16 with SNHL, and 15 with NH) were assessed for (1) their ability to recognize lexical tones using acoustic E or FS cues with the “auditory chimera” technique, (2) temporal resolution as measured with temporal gap detection (TGD) threshold, and (3) frequency resolution as measured with the Q10dB values of the psychophysical tuning curves. Overall, 26.5%, 60.2%, and 92.1% of lexical tone responses were consistent with FS cues for tone perception for listeners with ANSD, SNHL, and NH, respectively. The mean TGD threshold was significantly higher for listeners with ANSD (11.9 ms) than for SNHL (4.0 ms; p < 0.001) and NH (3.9 ms; p < 0.001) listeners, with no significant difference between SNHL and NH listeners. In contrast, the mean Q10dB for listeners with SNHL (1.8±0.4) was significantly lower than that for ANSD (3.5±1.0; p < 0.001) and NH (3.4±0.9; p < 0.001) listeners, with no significant difference between ANSD and NH listeners. These results suggest that reduced temporal resolution, as opposed to reduced frequency selectivity, in ANSD subjects leads to greater degradation of FS processing for pitch perception.

Effects of temporal fine structure stimulation on Mandarin speech recognition in cochlear implant users.

Abstract Conclusion: The investigated experimental coding strategies significantly improved tone identification as compared with the participants’ everyday audio processor settings. However, this benefit could not be attributed entirely to temporal fine structure stimulation but seems to be caused by decreasing the lower corner frequency of the filter bank. The 6 week habituation period used in this study might have been too short to allow the listeners to derive additional lexical information from the unfamiliar stimulation patterns. Objectives: To evaluate a cochlear implant coding strategy that explicitly conveys temporal fine structure information in the context of the tonal language Mandarin. Methods: The study was designed as a longitudinal, monocentric, prospective, controlled, and randomized cross-over study and included 12 postlingually deafened adults, who were experienced cochlear implant users. Two experimental coding strategies, one of which explicitly presents temporal fine structure information, were compared to the participants’ personal TEMPO+ speech processors, which do not convey fine structure information. Results: Both experimental coding strategies improved tone identification by approximately 11 percentage points. This improvement was significant in the female speaker test. Sentence perception, as assessed with the M-HINT test, and quality of life scores were identical with all three coding strategies.

Perceptual separation of sensorineural hearing loss and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder

The present study aimed to examine whether the response patterns to the chimeric lexical tone tokens, combined with their pure tone audiometry (PTA) results, could separate listeners with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) from listeners with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD).

Speech development in young children with Mondini dysplasia who had undergone cochlear implantation

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of speech skills in young children with Mondini dysplasia and age-matched deaf children with radiologically normal inner ears over a period of 5 years after cochlear implantation (CI). METHODS In total, 700 congenitally severely to profoundly deaf children (281 girls and 419 boys) participated in this study. All of the participants had undergone unilateral CI surgery before 36 months of age. The participants were categorized into two groups based on the absence or presence of Mondini dysplasia in the implanted ear, as assessed via high-resolution, thin-slice computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging: group A comprised 592 children with radiologically normal inner ears and group B comprised 108 children with Mondini dysplasia. The Meaningful Use of Speech Scale (MUSS) and Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) were used to evaluate the speech performance of all young children at various time points: pre-surgery and at 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months after switch-on programming. RESULTS The mean scores of SIR and MUSS in children from both group A and group B showed significant improvements over time. No significant differences were found in the mean scores of SIR between the two groups at any time interval during the 5-year follow-up. The mean score of MUSS was significantly different between group A and group B at 12, 24, and 36 months after implantation, whereas no obvious differences were noted pre-surgery, and at 1, 3, 6, 48, and 60 months post-operation. CONCLUSIONS Young children with Mondini dysplasia develop their speech skills at a fast rate and achieve similar speech acquisition compared to age-matched children with radiologically normal inner ears 5 years post-operation. Therefore, CI is an effective intervention method for young children with Mondini dysplasia.

Categorical perception of lexical tones in native Mandarin-speaking listeners with sensorineural hearing loss

Abstract Background: Categorical perception (CP) of lexical tones was examined in normal hearing (NH) people, but it was unclear whether lexical tones can be perceived categorically in sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) people. Objectives: To explore the characteristic of lexical tone perception in native Mandarin speakers with SNHL. Materials and methods: Three types of continuum (Tone1/Tone2, Tone1/Tone4 and Tone2/Tone3) were constructed and each of them includes 15 stimuli which were resynthesized by applying the pitch-synchronous overlap and add (PSOLA) method implemented in Praat to the same Mandarin syllable, /a/, with a high-level tone produced by a female speaker. Forty native Mandarin NH speakers and 23 native Mandarin speakers with mild to moderate SNHL were recruited. A two alternative-forced-choice identification task was used to acquire the tonal perceptual data. Results: All tone perception curves owns the characteristic of CP in SNHL subjects. All tone perception curves were S-shape in SNHL subjects same as those in NH subjects. No significant difference of each continuum was observed between SNHL and NH. Conclusions: CP of lexical tone perception could be observed in native Mandarin speakers with mild to moderate SNHL. The slight damage in the peripheral auditory system did not change characteristic of lexical tone perception.

A Follow-Up Study on Music and Lexical Tone Perception in Adult Mandarin-Speaking Cochlear Implant Users

OBJECTIVE The aim was to evaluate the development of music and lexical tone perception in Mandarin-speaking adult cochlear implant (CI) users over a period of 1 year. STUDY DESIGN Prospective patient series. SETTING Tertiary hospital and research institute. PATIENTS Twenty five adult CI users, with ages ranging from 19 to 75 years old, participated in a year-long follow-up evaluation. There were also 40 normal hearing adult subjects who participated as a control group to provide the normal value range. INTERVENTIONS Musical sounds in cochlear implants (Mu.S.I.C.) test battery was undertaken to evaluate music perception ability. Mandarin Tone Identification in Noise Test (M-TINT) was used to assess lexical tone recognition. The tests for CI users were completed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the CI switch-on. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES Quantitative and statistical analysis of their results from music and tone perception tests. RESULTS The performance of music perception and tone recognition both demonstrated an overall improvement in outcomes during the entire 1-year follow-up process. The increasing trends were obvious in the early period especially in the first 6 months after switch-on. There was a significant improvement in the melody discrimination (p < 0.01), timbre identification (p < 0.001), tone recognition in quiet (p < 0.0001), and in noise (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Adult Mandarin-speaking CI users show an increasingly improved performance on music and tone perception during the 1-year follow-up. The improvement was the most prominent in the first 6 months of CI use. It is essential to strengthen the rehabilitation training within the first 6 months.

Voice Pitch Elicited Frequency Following Response in Chinese Elderlies

Background: Perceptual and electrophysiological studies have found reduced speech discrimination in quiet and noisy environment, delayed neural timing, decreased neural synchrony, and decreased temporal processing ability in elderlies, even those with normal hearing. However, recent studies have also demonstrated that language experience and auditory training enhance the temporal dynamics of sound encoding in the auditory brainstem response (ABR). The purpose of this study was to explore the pitch processing ability at the brainstem level in an aging population that has a tonal language background. Method: Mandarin speaking younger (n = 12) and older (n = 12) adults were recruited for this study. All participants had normal audiometric test results and normal suprathreshold click-evoked ABR. To record frequency following responses (FFRs) elicited by Mandarin lexical tones, two Mandarin Chinese syllables with different fundamental frequency pitch contours (Flat Tone and Falling Tone) were presented at 70 dB SPL. Fundamental frequencies (f0) of both the stimulus and the responses were extracted and compared to individual brainstem responses. Two indices were used to examine different aspects of pitch processing ability at the brainstem level: Pitch Strength and Pitch Correlation. Results: Lexical tone elicited FFR were overall weaker in the older adult group compared to their younger adult counterpart. Measured by Pitch Strength and Pitch Correlation, statistically significant group differences were only found when the tone with a falling f0 (Falling Tone) were used as the stimulus. Conclusion: Results of this study demonstrated that in a tonal language speaking population, pitch processing ability at the brainstem level of older adults are not as strong and robust as their younger counterparts. Findings of this study are consistent with previous reports on brainstem responses of older adults whose native language is English. On the other hand, lexical tone elicited FFRs have been shown to correlate with the length of language exposure. Older adults’ degraded responses in our study may also be due to that, the Mandarin speaking older adults’ long term exposure somewhat counteracted the negative impact on aging and helped maintain, or at least reduced, the degradation rate in their temporal processing capacity at the brainstem level.