The effects of bilateral cochlear implantations on vocal performance of cochlear implant users
Soleimanifar, Simin
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122152
Description
Title
The effects of bilateral cochlear implantations on vocal performance of cochlear implant users
Author(s)
Soleimanifar, Simin
Issue Date
2023-11-30
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Aronoff, Justin M
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Aronoff, Justin M
Committee Member(s)
Bottalico, Pasquale
Fogerty, Dan
Flaherty, Mary
Department of Study
Speech & Hearing Science
Discipline
Speech & Hearing Science
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Cochlear Implants
Voice
Speech Production Measurement
Abstract
Using bilateral cochlear implants (BiCI) can result in significant improvements over unilateral implantation in many perceptual tasks, including speech perception and localization. However, evidence suggests that BiCI users may perform worse on some vocal tasks, such as fo production, when using both devices than when they use their better ear alone. Although some studies have demonstrated that BiCI users struggle with controlling long-term variations in vocal intensity (vAm), there is insufficient evidence comparing their performance to that of using their better ear alone. The link between speech perception and production suggests that the difficulties experienced by BiCI users to control vocal intensity variations may stem from perceiving inconsistent and varying relative loudness cues across two ears due to unmatched loudness growth. This study aims to investigate how differences in loudness growth across ears contribute to poor vocal intensity control.
Experiment 1 tested thirteen BiCI users with sustained vowel vocalization using both cochlear implant devices together and each one separately to measure their ability to control long-term vocal intensity variation, vAm. To determine the extent to which loudness growth affected vAm, Experiment 2 manipulated the amount of amplitude compression through the processor and measured the change in vAm for nine BiCI users. To determine if deficits in vAm when using both ears reflected mismatched loudness growth perception across ears, Experiment 3 examined loudness growth from each ear. A subset of ten BiCI users from the first experiment participated in Experiment 2, in which loudness scaling was measured while using their clinical devices to obtain the loudness growth perception separately for the left and right ears.
Experiment 1 found that BiCI devices significantly decreased the ability to control vAm compared to unilateral CIs. Experiment 2 demonstrated that increasing the compression reduced the ability to control vAm, indicating that changes in loudness growth away affect vAm. Experiment 3 revealed that most BiCI users perceived different loudness growth between their left and right CI, potentially explaining their poor vAm when using both together.
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