Acoustic analysis of tone production in Mandarin-speaking bimodal cochlear implant users.

The benefit of using a hearing aid with a cochlear implant (bimodal hearing) has been demonstrated for tone perception under certain conditions. The present study evaluated bimodal effects for tone production by comparing performance between a bimodal and a unimodal implant group. Results showed that acoustic differentiation of tones produced by the bimodal group was better than the unimodal implant group, and performance was dependent on the subject's acoustic thresholds but not related to implant experience or age at implantation.

The P300 Auditory Event-Related Potential May Predict Segregation of Competing Speech by Bimodal Cochlear Implant Listeners.

Compared to normal-hearing (NH) listeners, cochlear implant (CI) listeners have greater difficulty segregating competing speech. Neurophysiological studies have largely investigated the neural foundations for CI listeners' speech recognition in quiet, mainly using the P300 component of event-related potentials (ERPs). P300 is closely related to cognitive processes involving auditory discrimination, selective attention, and working memory.

Effect of Ipsilateral, Contralateral or Bilateral Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Patients with Lateralized Tinnitus: A Placebo-Controlled Randomized Study.

The relative benefit of ipsilateral, contralateral, and bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for tinnitus treatment remains unclear, especially for patients with lateralized tinnitus. In this study, we compared outcomes after 10 sessions of 1-Hz rTMS at 110% of resting motor threshold over a two-week period. In total, 104 right-handed patients with lateralized subjective tinnitus were randomly divided into four groups according to rTMS treatment: Left (n = 29), Right (n = 23), Bilateral (n = 30), and Sham stimulation (n = 22).

Segregation of competing speech in adults and children with normal hearing and in children with cochlear implants.

Children with normal hearing (CNH) have greater difficulty segregating competing speech than do adults with normal hearing (ANH). Children with cochlear implants (CCI) have greater difficulty segregating competing speech than do CNH. In the present study, speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in competing speech were measured in Chinese Mandarin-speaking ANH, CNH, and CCIs.

Effects of Monaural Asymmetry and Target-Masker Similarity on Binaural Advantage in Children and Adults With Normal Hearing.

Purpose For colocated targets and maskers, binaural listening typically offers a small but significant advantage over monaural listening. This study investigated how monaural asymmetry and target-masker similarity may limit binaural advantage in adults and children. Method Ten Mandarin-speaking Chinese adults (aged 22-27 years) and 12 children (aged 7-14 years) with normal hearing participated in the study.

Factors Affecting Bimodal Benefit in Pediatric Mandarin-Speaking Chinese Cochlear Implant Users.

Objectives: While fundamental frequency (F0) cues are important to both lexical tone perception and multitalker segregation, F0 cues are poorly perceived by cochlear implant (CI) users. Adding low-frequency acoustic hearing via a hearing aid in the contralateral ear may improve CI users' F0 perception. For English-speaking CI users, contralateral acoustic hearing has been shown to improve perception of target speech in noise and in competing talkers.

Effects of age and duration of deafness on Mandarin speech understanding in competing speech by normal-hearing and cochlear implant children.

Due to poor perception of fundamental frequency (0) cues that are important for lexical tone perception and talker segregation, pediatric Chinese cochlear implant (CI) users may be especially susceptible to informational masking. Here, speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) were measured in steady noise or competing speech in Mandarin-speaking CI and normal-hearing (NH) children. CI children were more susceptible to informational masking and were unable to use 0 cues to segregate talkers.

Music Training Can Improve Music and Speech Perception in Pediatric Mandarin-Speaking Cochlear Implant Users.

Due to limited spectral resolution, cochlear implants (CIs) do not convey pitch information very well. Pitch cues are important for perception of music and tonal language; it is possible that music training may improve performance in both listening tasks. In this study, we investigated music training outcomes in terms of perception of music, lexical tones, and sentences in 22 young (4.

Bilaterally Combined Electric and Acoustic Hearing in Mandarin-Speaking Listeners: The Population With Poor Residual Hearing.

The hearing loss criterion for cochlear implant candidacy in mainland China is extremely stringent (bilateral severe to profound hearing loss), resulting in few patients with substantial residual hearing in the nonimplanted ear. The main objective of the current study was to examine the benefit of bimodal hearing in typical Mandarin-speaking implant users who have poorer residual hearing in the nonimplanted ear relative to those used in the English-speaking studies. Seventeen Mandarin-speaking bimodal users with pure-tone averages of ∼80 dB HL participated in the study.

The development and validation of the Closed-set Mandarin Sentence (CMS) test.

Matrix-styled sentence tests offer a closed-set paradigm that may be useful when evaluating speech intelligibility. Ideally, sentence test materials should reflect the distribution of phonemes within the target language. We developed and validated the Closed-set Mandarin Sentence (CMS) test to assess Mandarin speech intelligibility in noise.

Effect of spatial separation and noise type on sentence recognition by Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant users.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of spatial separation and noise type on sentence recognition by unilateral Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant (CI) users and normal-hearing (NH) listeners.

Method: Twenty-two unilateral Mandarin-speaking CI users and six NH listeners participated in this study. Speech reception thresholds were measured for three noise types (steady state noise, speech babble, and music).

MPR-CT Imaging for Stapes Prosthesis: Accuracy and Clinical Significance.

Objectives: The aims of this article are: 1) to re-evaluate the accuracy of multiple planar reconstruction computed tomography (MPR-CT) imaging on stapes-prosthesis parameters, and 2) to clarify possible relationships between prosthesis intravestibular depth and postoperative hearing outcomes.

Patients: Seventy patients (46 women and 24 men; 32 right and 38 left sides) with the mean age of 40 years (range, 19-62 yr) with clinical otosclerosis.

Intervention(s): All patients underwent stapedotomy and were implanted with the same type of titanium piston prosthesis by the same surgeon.

Is it necessary to retain the tensor tympani tendon in tympanoplasty?

Objectives/hypothesis: To evaluate the acoustic effect after canal wall-down tympanoplasty with sectioning of the tensor tympani muscle (TTM) tendon in patients with chronic otitis media.

Study Design: Prospective, controlled clinical trial.

Methods: From January 2010 to April 2014, 212 patients underwent canal wall-down tympanoplasty with ossicular chain reconstruction in one-stage surgery.

Temporal bone chondrosarcoma: Presentation of 4 cases and review of the literature.

We describe 4 cases of chondrosarcoma of the temporal bone, which occurred in a 66-year-old man and in 3 women aged 34, 37, and 47 years. One of these patients was originally diagnosed with an epithelial cyst and another with a middle ear neoplasm. Three patients underwent surgical removal of their tumor, while the other patient declined (a craniotomy for biopsy was performed in this case).

Melodic pitch perception and lexical tone perception in Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant users.

Objectives: To examine the relationship between lexical tone perception and melodic pitch perception in Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant (CI) users and to investigate the influence of previous acoustic hearing on CI users' speech and music perception.

Design: Lexical tone perception and melodic contour identification (MCI) were measured in 21 prelingual and 11 postlingual young (aged 6-26 years) Mandarin-speaking CI users. Lexical tone recognition was measured for four tonal patterns: tone 1 (flat F0), tone 2 (rising F0), tone 3 (falling-rising F0), and tone 4 (falling F0).

Contribution of auditory working memory to speech understanding in mandarin-speaking cochlear implant users.

Purpose: To investigate how auditory working memory relates to speech perception performance by Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant (CI) users.

Method: Auditory working memory and speech perception was measured in Mandarin-speaking CI and normal-hearing (NH) participants. Working memory capacity was measured using forward digit span and backward digit span; working memory efficiency was measured using articulation rate.

[Effects of cochlear implantation on ipsilateral tinnitus].

Objective: Cochlear implantation is the current standard of care in patients with significant sensorineural hearing loss. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of cochlear implantation on ipsilateral tinnitus.

Methods: With standard assessment table and standard testing program, 48 postlingual hearing-impaired adults aged 18 - 62 years (mean age at implantation: 35.

[Efficacy of ossicular chain reconstruction using titanium implants in single-stage tympanoplasty].

Objective: To explore the efficacy of total and partial ossicular chain reconstruction using titanium implants.

Methods: Total of 106 patients (107 ears) underwent ossiculoplasty using titanium from June 2008 to January 2011. Eighty-six ears had partial ossicular replacement prosthesis (PORP) and 21 ears had total ossicular replacement prosthesis (TORP).

[Tone recognition of REZ-1 multi-channel unilateral cochlear implants for profoundly postlingual deaf adults].

Objective: To assess the tone recognition of cochlear-implant subjects by a REZ-1 device.

Methods: Speech recognition experiments were conducted to measure the tone recognition with standard assessment table and standard testing program. A total of 34 postlingual hearing-impaired adults who were native speakers of Mandarin undergoing operations from June to October, 2009 were tested and scored both preoperatively and postoperatively (1, 2, 3, 6, 12 months post-implantation) for speech recognition.

[Clinical effectiveness of REZ-I cochlear implants in post-lingual deafened Chinese dialect speakers].

Objective: To investigate the improvement of severe-to-profound hearing-impaired adults received REZ-I cochlear implant and to give an analysis to some Chinese dialect speakers.

Method: With standard assessment table and standard testing program, 48 post-lingual hearing-impaired adults were divided into Mandarin language group (41 cases) and dialect group (7 cases). All of them were tested and scored for their hearing and speech perception abilities after 90 days rehabilitation.

Mandarin Chinese speech recognition by pediatric cochlear implant users.

Objectives: Because of difficulties associated with pediatric speech testing, most pediatric cochlear implant (CI) speech studies necessarily involve basic and simple perceptual tasks. There are relatively few studies regarding Mandarin-speaking pediatric CI users' perception of more difficult speech materials (e.g.

[Effect of REZ-I cochlear implantation on residual hearing in adult patients].

Objective: To evaluate the effect of cochlear implantation with REZ-I straight electrodes on residual hearing of postlingually deafened adults, and to explore the audiologically safety and injury characteristics of cochlear implantation.

Methods: Sixteen unilateral REZ-I (22 channels) cochlear implantation recipients from September 2009 to December 2009 were picked out. Their pre-and post-implantation audiometry data including pure-tone audiometry (PTA), auditory steady-state responses (ASSR), auditory brainstem responses (ABR) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) were retrospectively analyzed, in order to compare the change between pre- and post-implantation residual hearing.