Modeling a damaged cochlea: beyond non-speech psychophysics

Authors

  • Morten L. Jepsen Centre for Applied Hearing Research, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark; Hearing Research Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
  • Oded Ghitza Hearing Research Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
  • Torsten Dau Centre for Applied Hearing Research, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

Abstract

It has long been recognized that audiograms provide only a limited view of hearing impairment; exploiting “beyond audiogram” psychophysics was only recently reported. Here, we explore a method in which speech test stimuli are used as integral part of the modelling process of damaged cochleae. In a preliminary phase, non-speech psychophysical data were collected in individual hearing-impaired listeners. Following a procedure described previously, these data were used to adjust parameters of a peripheral auditory model, aiming at simulating the individual listeners’ hearing impairment. In the second phase, the same individuals were tested in a speech task - a diagnostic rhyme test (DRT). Monosyllabic words, organized as minimal pairs, were synthesized such that their acoustic waveforms only differed in the initial diphone’s segments. These stimuli were processed by the model obtained in the preliminary phase; the resulting representation was analyzed by a machine mimicking the DRT paradigm, generating acoustic-phonetic error patterns. An important feature of the DRT framework is the separation of errors originated by the front-end from those originated by the back-end. In comparing machine to human, some error patterns were accounted for by the model, indicating that there is a relation between speech and non-speech psychophysics.

References

Ghitza, O. (1993). “Adequacy of auditory models to predict human internal representation of speech sounds,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 93, 2160-2171.

Jepsen, M., Ewert, S. D., and Dau, T. (2008). “A computational model of human auditory signal processing and perception,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 124, 422-438.

Jepsen, M. L., and Dau, T. (2010). “Characterizing auditory processing and perception in individual listeners with sensorineural hearing loss,” submitted to J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

Messing, D. P., Delhorne, L., Bruckert, E., Braida, L. D., and Ghitza, O. (2009). “A non-linear efferent-inspired model of the auditory system; matching human confusions in stationary noise,” Speech Commun. 51, 668-683.

Voiers, W. D. (1983). “Evaluating processed speech using the diagnostic rhyme test,” Speech Technol. 1, 30-39.

Additional Files

Published

2009-12-15

How to Cite

Jepsen, M. L., Ghitza, O., & Dau, T. (2009). Modeling a damaged cochlea: beyond non-speech psychophysics. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, 2, 47–55. Retrieved from https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2009-05

Issue

Vol. 2 (2009): Binaural Processing and Spatial Hearing

Section

2009/1. Physiological measures and models of binaural hearing

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