Production and Perception in CI-speakers

Funding, application period

DFG, 2012 - 2015

Project description

The first aim of the project is to reach a better understanding of how the articulation of cochlear implant (CI) users differs from that of control subjects. In addition to the acoustic analyses required to fulfill this aim, the project will also conduct extensive perceptual tests of discriminatory ability, using a consistent design to target not just the auditory modality but also the visual and somatosensory modalities . The overall aim of the project is thus to investigate the link between speech production and perception. In particular, the objective is to identify in which sensory channel (or combination of channels) the discrimination performance gives the best prediction of speech production performance (i.e. the ability to realize articulatorily stable sound contrasts). This in turn should contribute to further assessment of multimodal integration as a key component of spoken language processing, not only by CI users, but also normal hearing subjects. On this basis we hope as a long-term goal to obtain improved insight into the reasons for the considerable inter-individual variability in the speech production abilities of CI users, and thus to contribute to development of therapeutic approaches. In order to achieve these goals the investigation will be used on at least 3 groups of CI users differing systematically in age at hearing loss, and age at implantation (together with matched control groups).