Cochlear implant pitch and lexical tone perception in quiet and noise using F0-rate coding

• DOI: 10.1121/10.0022681
• Publication Date: 2023-11-28T14:56:26Z
• Authors: Andrew E. Vandali; Zachary Smith; Komal Arora; Lei Xu; Jianfen Luo; Ruijie Wang; Xiuhua Chao; Yi Zheng
• Keywords: QUIET; Mandarin Chinese; Stimulus (psychology); Tone (literature); Fundamental frequency

Fundamental frequency (F0) cues to voice/musical pitch can be coded by pulse-rate or amplitude modulation (AM) rate of electrical pulse-trains in cochlear implant (CI) systems. However, for most clinical strategies (e.g., ACE), temporal F0 are often poorly coded, particularly female and children's voices and/or background noise. Strategies such as Optimized Pitch And Language (OPAL) Asynchronous Stimulus Timing (FAST) enhance cues. For OPAL, is estimated used control the AM channel containing harmonics F0. Significant benefits OPAL ranking, speech intonation, Mandarin lexical tone recognition have been observed compared ACE. FAST, peak-timing information envelopes derive pulse-timing each therefore much lower stimulation rates provided resulting longer battery life. In bilateral CI systems, it provides better ITD sensitivity, lateralization, spatial release from masking Presented here results two studies, first explored perception harmonic tones presented quiet noise using experimental FAST strategies, second examined ACE a processor.