Speech intelligibility under noise conditions in sensorineural hearing-impaired / 中国耳鼻咽喉头颈外科

OBJECTIVE To study the impacts of different noise patterns on speech perception in normal hearing subjects and patients with sensorineural hearing loss. METHODS Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test for Children was played by MATLAB software in this study. The speech intelligibility of 25 normal hearing subjects and 20 patients with sensorineural hearing loss in quiet, speech-shaped noise and two-talker babbles were tested. The differences between normal hearing subjects and patients with sensorineural hearing loss in quiet and noise conditions were analyzed. RESULTS With the decrease of signal-to-noise ratios, the speech intelligibility of normal hearing subjects in speech-shaped noise pattern was declining more severely compared with the two-talker babbles pattern but there were no significant differences between them (P＞0.05). There were significant statistical differences in speech intelligibility under quiet, speech-shaped noise and two-talker babbles at 5 dB SNR (

Effect of speech recognition outcomes in mandarin-speaking cochlear implant users with updated speech coding strategy / 中国耳鼻咽喉头颈外科

OBJECTIVE To determine speech perception,tone perception and the subjective preferences of mandarin-speaking adults who received the fine structure processing(FSP) coding strategy,at upgrade from the continuous interleaved sampling(CIS+) coding strategy.METHODS Thirteen mandarin-speaking subjects were tested at switch-over from CIS+ to FSP coding strategy approximately 1-,2-,and 3-month after switch-over with the mandarin hearing in noise test(M-HINT),the mandarin tone identification in noise test(M-TINT),and a visual analogue scale assessing sound and speech assessment(SSA).RESULTS Tone perception improved significantly over time with the FSP coding strategy.There were no significant differences in the MHINT over time,nor when compared to the CIS+ coding strategy.Subjects rated the FSP coding strategy with the OPUS 2 as significantly more "full" and "rich" than with the CIS+ coding strategy after 3-months.CONCLUSION Mandarin-speaking adults can use the FSP coding strategy as well as CIS+ coding strategy.Loss in performance was not observed after switch-over.Tone identification improves over time with the FSP coding strategy,which is beneficial to tonal-language users.

Effects of Optimized Formulas of Radix Astragali and Radix Angelicae Sinensis Extracts on Survival Status of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Mice and on Expression of Cytogenesis-related Factors in Lung Tissues / 广州中医药大学学报

Objective To observe the effect of the optimized formulas of extracts of Radix Astragali and Radix Angelicae Sinensis on the survival status of the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) mice,and on the expression levels of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF),so as to optimize the therapeutic regimen and to explore the therapeutic mechanism.Methods One hundred and five SPF ICR male mice were randomly divided into normal group,model group and 5 Chinese medicine treatment groups (group 1,2,3,4,5 of the optimized formula of Radix Astragali and Radix Angelicae Sinensis extracts).The mice in the model group and the 5 treatment groups were intratracheally injected with bleomycin (5 mg/kg) to induce the pulmonary fibrosis model.On day 21,the lung tissues were taken out for the test.Hydroxyproline content was detected by alkaline hydrolysis method,and morphological changes of lung tissues were observed by hematoxylineosin (HE) staining and Mallory's staining methods.The expression levels of TGF-β and VEGF were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).Results The HE staining and Mallory's staining results showed that the pulmonary fibrosis in the 5 treatment groups was relieved as compared with that in the model group,especially in the group 1,and the alveolar structure recovered better.The 21-day overall death rate in the treatment groups were lower than those in the model group,and group 1 and group 5 had the lowest rates,the difference being statistically significant (P＜ 0.05).Compared with the model group,the content of hydroxyproline in the lung tissues of the treatment groups were decreased to some degrees,and there was significant difference (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01).The expression levels of TGF-β and VEGF in model group were higher than those in normal group,but were deceased in the treatment groups to some degrees,except TGF-β expression in group 5,and the difference was significant(P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion When the contents of Radix Astragali water-extract and Radix Angelicae Sinensis alcohol-extract were predominated,the extract formula exerts certain effects on decreasing hydroxyproline content in the lung tissues,inhibiting the expression levels of TGF-β and VEGF,and relieving the degree of pulmonary fibrosis in IPF mice.

Lexical tone perception in sensorineural hearing-impaired and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#This study was aimed at investigating the ability of lexical tone perception in listeners with sensorineural hearing impairment and auditory. neuropathy spectrum disorder.@*METHOD@#Three groups of subjects were recruited in this study, including 11 subjects with normal hearing, 14 subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment, and 25 subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. Ten monosyllabic syllables were selected, and combined with four lexical tones which were made up of 40 tone tokens as the original test materials. Then, these original words were recorded using one adult male and one adult female native Beijing Mandarin speaker. The speakers were asked to record these 40 monosyllabic words multiple times, and the 80 tokens in which the durations of four tones in each monosyllabic word were within 5ms precision were chosen as the test tone tokens. The subjects were asked to perform a four-alternative forced-choice study and select which tone they had heard.@*RESULT@#The mean and standard deviation of the tone perception correct scores for normal-hearing subjects, subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment, and subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder were (97.3 ± 2.8)%, (88.0 ± 9.9)%, and (65.7 ± 17.1)%, respectively. Significant differences in tone perception scores were found to be between subjects with normal hearing and subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment (P < 0.01) and between subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (P < 0.01). In addition, a significant difference was found to be between subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (P < 0.05). A significantly negative correlation was observed between tone perception score and pure tone hearing thresholds for both subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (r = -0.756, P < 0.01) and subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (r = -0.546, P < 0.01).@*CONCLUSION@#As the hearing loss became more severe, the ability to perceive lexical tone for both subjects with sensorineural hearing loss and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder reduced. Subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder had more degraded ability to perceive lexical tone and a larger individual difference, in comparison with subjects with sensorineural hearing loss.

The effect of improving the physical and mental health on different rehabilitation programs for post-linguistic cochlear implantees / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To evaluate the physical and mental health status of post-linguistic cochlear implantees, and then to explore the effectiveness on of different rehabilitation programs.@*METHOD@#Mandarin hearing in noise test (MHINT), personal report of communication apprehension (PRCA-24) and Nijmegen cochlear implant questionnaire (NCIQ) were used to measure the hearing ability, mental health degree and the health related life quality in 36 post-linguistic cochlear implant users, respectively. The improvement of subjects' physical and mental health levels was compared with among different rehabilitation programs, including family training program, auditory habilitation program and psychological intervention program.@*RESULT@#(1) Family training program only can improve the subject's hearing ability (P < 0.05), but failed to ease the communication apprehension; ((2) Auditory habilitation program can both significantly improve the subjects' hearing ability (P < 0.01) and ease the fear of talking face to face (P < 0.01); (3) Psychological intervention program can significantly increase the auditory abilities (P < 0.01), reduce the communication apprehension (P < 0.01) and improve the quality of life.@*CONCLUSION@#Post-linguistic cochlear implantees had obvious mental symptoms. It was very important to design an effective rehabilitation program to improvement the living quality of hearing loss people.

The Ability of Temporal Gap Detection in Listeners with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

Objective This study was aimed at investigating the ability of temporal gap detection (TGD) in listeners with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD ) .Methods The temporal gap detection thresholds were measured for subjects using a TGD program developed by University of California ,Irvine .Three groups of subjects were recruited in this study ,including 12 subjects with normal hearing ,12 subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) ,and 15 subjects with ANSD .The differences of TGD thresholds among the three groups of subjects were analyzed using a one - sample ANOVA method .Results No significant difference of the TGD thresh‐old was observed between two ears for all the subjects .The mean and standard deviation of the gap - detection threshold for both ears was about 3 .9 ± 1 .1 ms ,3 .6 ± 1 .1 ms ,and 13 .7 ± 9 .9 ms for normal - hearing subjects , subjects with SNHL ,and subjects with ANSD ,respectively .The TGD threshold in subjects with ANSD was sig‐nificantly higher than those of in normal hearing group (P< 0 .01) and SNHL group (P< 0 .01) ,while no signifi‐cant difference was found in TGD thresholds between normal - hearing subjects and subjects with SNHL .Conclusion For listeners with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder ,their ability to resolve temporal information was de‐graded with a large individual variability .

Effects of temporal fine structure stimulation on Mandarin identification in cochlear implant users / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the contribution of the temporal fine structure cues on speech recognition, especially tone perception of cochlear implant users whose native language is Mandarin Chinese.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twelve Mandarin speaking users of the MED-EL COMBI 40+ cochlear implants with the standard COMBI 40+ electrode array participated in the study. The subjects were followed up and studied using the longitudinal method for six weeks to compare the difference in speech identification results between fine structure processing (FSP) and continuous interleaved sampler (CIS). The test battery comprised two objective speech tests, including tone identification in quiet as well as a sentence recognition task in quiet and noise.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The scores of acute speech test: after replacing FSP strategy, the acute tone test results were similar to that of daily used CIS strategy(male version t = 0.791, P = 0.446;female version t = 0.679, P = 0.511), but the scores of MHINT were decreased significantly (t = -4.365, P = 0.001). The scores of long-lasting speech test were as follows the scores of tone identification test were sharply increased after subjects used the new coding strategy for six weeks continuously(male version t = 3.023, P = 0.018;female version t = 3.883, P = 0.003) and the MHIN results were similar to that of daily used CIS strategy(t = 1.475, P = 0.173).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The extraction of temporal fine structure cues supplemented in speech processing strategy of cochlear implant benefits the improvements in tone perception and the understanding of speech in cochlear implant recipients, which can further promotes their quality of life.</p>

The development of musicality in children after cochlear implantation / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#The purpose of this study is to analyze the development of musicality in children after cochlear implantation, and provide a clinical database for the evaluation of their musicality.@*METHOD@#Twenty-six children with cochlear implants (CI group) participated in this research. They received cochlear implants at the age of 11 to 68 months with a mean of 35.6 months. Seventy-six infants as a control group aged from 1 to 24 months with a mean of 6.1 months participated in this study, whose hearing were considered normal by passing the case history collection, high-risk registers for hearing loss and hearing screening using DPOAE. The music and young children with CIs: Musicality Rating Scale was used to evaluate their musicality. The evaluation was performed before cochlear implantation and 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 months after cochlear implantation for children with cochlear implants. The evaluation was also performed at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 months for children with normal hearing.@*RESULT@#The mean scores of musicality showed significant improvements with time of CI use for CI group (P0.05). Significant difference was noted between the two groups at 24 months (P<0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#The musicality of children with cochlear implants improved significantly with time after cochlear implantation. The most rapid growth was found in the first year after cochlear implantation.

Tone recognition ability for post-lingually deafened cochlear implant users using pitch information / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#The present study was aimed to assess the ability of tone recognition performance for postlingually deafed cochlear implanted adults using no-duration tone test materials.@*METHOD@#Sixteen cochlear implanted users have used their devices at least six months. Ten monosyllabic syllables were selected, and combined with four lexical tones which were made up of 40 tone tokens. Then, these original words were recorded using one adult male and one adult female native Beijing Mandarin speaker. The speakers were asked to record these 40 monosyllabic words multiple times, and the 80 tokens in which the durations of four tones in each monosyllabic word were within 5 ms precision were chosen as the original tone tokens. The subjects were asked to perform a four alternative forced-choice study and select the tone they had heard.@*RESULT@#The mean score of lexical tone perception tasks for 16 cochlear implanted users is (70.7 ± 22.0)%, and Tone 4 was the easiest to perceive, while Tone 2 was the hardest for cochlear implanted subjects to perceive. Tone 1 was more often misperceived as Tone 2 relative to other tones. Tone 2 was more often misperceived as Tone 1 and 3. Tone 3 was more often misperceived as Tone 2. The tone perception performance was positively correlated with duration of hearing aid use.@*CONCLUSION@#Duration cues may impact on the ability of tone recognition performance for cochlear implant subjects, especially for tone 3. Due to the limited ability for cochlear implant subjects on pitch perception, tone l and tone 2, and tone 2 and tone 3 are most often confused with each other without duration cues. The experience of hearing aid use may benefit for postlingual deafness cochlear implant recipients on tone perception performance.

Lexical tone perception and quality of life in nurotron cochlear implant users / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the lexical tone perception and quality of life of Nurotron cochlear implant users.@*METHOD@#Forty-nine adult cochlear implant users participated in this study. Mandarin tone identification test developed by Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology was used to evaluate the tone perception. Nijmegen cochlear im plantation questionnaire (NCIQ) was administered to quantify the quality of life.@*RESULT@#(1) The average scores of tone perception in quiet was 67.26%. The tone perception rates under quiet condition for all cochlear implant recipients were higher than the opportunity level. (2) The average scores of tone perception under noisy condition was 51.92%. Exc ept for two recipients, the tone perception rates under noise condition for the rest recipients were better than chance. (3) The confusion patterns of tone recognition showed that Tone 3 was the easiest tone to perceive. (4) The postimplant scores for the total , basic sound perception, advanced sound perception, speech pro duction, self-esteem, activity and social interactions of NCIQ were 55.4, 72.4, 54.0, 63.4, 50.7, 47.3 and 44.7, respectively.@*CONCLUSION@#The Nurotron cochlear implant users had the ability for lexical tone perception and had an improvement in quality of life after cochlear implantation.

The DeveIopment of PreverbaI Communication SkiIIs in PreIinguaIIy Deaf ChiIdren with CochIear ImpIants / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

Objective The aim of this study is to summarize preverbal communication skills in children with cochlear implants,and to provide a clinical baseline of assessment in early stage after cochlear implantation.Methods 23 prelingually deaf children with homebred cochlear implants participated in this study.The age at cochlear im-plantation ranged from 12 to 66 months with a mean of 35 months.The evaluation was performed at switch-on ses-sion and 1,3,6,9 and 12 months after the first programming session.Tait video analysis was used to assess the preverbal communication skills including turn-taking,autonomy,eye contact and auditory awareness.CAP and SIR were used to evaluate the auditory and speech abilities.ResuIts The skills of turn-taking and auditory aware-ness increased significantly,especially in the first six months after switch-on session (P0. 05).There was a correlation between the score of CAP/SIR and turn-taking or auditory awareness.ConcIusion Children with cochlear implants established vocal-auditory mode of early communicative behavior over time.Pre-verbal communication skills CAP and SIR have relativity and can comprehensively evaluate the auditory,speech and communication skills of children with cochlear implants.

A study on the normal values of musical sounds in cochlear implants test battery / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To establish music reference values for normal-hearing (NH) person in China, in order to give convenience in clinical application.@*METHOD@#The NH participant group included 39 subjects, of which 21 females and 18 males. Musical Sounds in Cochlear Implants test battery was used to assess the music perception ability for normal-hearing participants.@*RESULT@#The median pitch difference NH participants could discriminate for string was 2.5 semitones and 0.5 for flute. The average scores of rhythm discrimination, melody discrimination, chord discrimination, instrument identification and instrument number detection test were 86.1% (SD = 11.2), 76.5% (SD = 11.1), 75.6% (SD = 11.4), 89.9% (SD = 13.0) and 74.1% (SD = 20.7), respectively.@*CONCLUSION@#The MuSIC test could be a test for music perception ability for China users and in further study the material that more suited for our culture should be added into it.

Emotional response to music by postlingually-deafened adult cochlear implant users / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To assess the emotional response to music by postlingually-deafened adult cochlear implant users.@*METHOD@#Munich music questionnaire (MUMU) was used to match the music experience and the motivation of use of music between 12 normal-hearing and 12 cochlear implant subjects. Emotion rating test in Musical Sounds in Cochlear Implants (MuSIC) test battery was used to assess the emotion perception ability for both normal-hearing and cochlear implant subjects. A total of 15 pieces of music phases were used. Responses were given by selecting the rating scales from 1 to 10. "1" represents "very sad" feeling, and "10" represents "very happy feeling.@*RESULT@#In comparison with normal-hearing subjects, 12 cochlear implant subjects made less active use of music for emotional purpose. The emotion ratings for cochlear implant subjects were similar to normal-hearing subjects, but with large variability.@*CONCLUSION@#Post-lingually deafened cochlear implant subjects on average performed similarly in emotion rating tasks relative to normal-hearing subjects, but their active use of music for emotional purpose was obviously less than normal-hearing subjects.

Effect of age at cochlear implantation on auditory performance at the early stage after surgery in infants / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To evaluate the auditory performance of infants with cochlear implants at the early stage after surgery, summarize the development of auditory ability, investigate the effect of age at cochlear implantation on auditory performance within the first year after surgery and provide a reference for their habilitation program.@*METHOD@#A total of 272 infants with prelingually profound hearing loss participated in this study, ranging in age at cochlear implantation from 18 to 36 months. The mean age was 21 months with a standard deviation of 7 months. Infants with cochlear implants were divided into three groups according to their age at implantation. Infants in group A were implanted under 18 months of age. Infants in group B were implanted between 18 and 24 months of age. Infants in group C were implanted between 25 and 36 months of age. Categories of auditory performance (CAP) was used to evaluate the auditory performance, which rates auditory abilities in eight categories for a scale of 0 to 7.@*RESULT@#The mean scores of CAP for all infants at each interval were significantly different after implantation. Significant differences were observed in mean scores of CAP among these three groups in 1 and 3 months after switch-on. However there were no significant differences in pre-operation, 6, 9 and 12 months after switch-on.@*CONCLUSION@#There is a significant improvement in auditory performance of infants with prelingually profound hearing loss within the first year after cochlear implantation. The age at cochlear implantation has no critical influence on the development of auditory capabilities at the early stage after surgery. CAP is a practical tool which can be used in clinic in China.

The contribution of different cochlear insertion region to Mandarin speech perception in users of cochlear implant / 临床耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To study the effect of cochlear electrode coverage and different insertion region on speech recognition, especially tone perception of cochlear implant users whose native language is Mandarin Chinese.@*METHOD@#Setting seven test conditions by fitting software. All conditions were created by switching on/off respective channels in order to simulate different insertion position. Then Mandarin CI users received 4 Speech tests, including Vowel Identification test, Consonant Identification test, Tone Identification test-male speaker, Mandarin HINT test (SRS) in quiet and noise.@*RESULT@#To all test conditions: the average score of vowel identification was significantly different, from 56% to 91% (Rank sum test, P 0.05). However the more channels activated, the higher scores obtained, from 68% to 81%.@*CONCLUSION@#This study shows that there is a correlation between insertion depth and speech recognition. Because all parts of the basement membrane can help CI users to improve their speech recognition ability, it is very important to enhance verbal communication ability and social interaction ability of CI users by increasing insertion depth and actively stimulating the top region of cochlear.