Effects of talker variability on vowel recognition in cochlear implants

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the effects of talker variability on vowel recognition by cochlear implant (CI) users and by normal-hearing (NH) participants listening to 4-channel acoustic CI simulations.

Method: CI users were tested with their clinically assigned speech processors. For NH participants, 3 CI processors were simulated, using different combinations of carrier type and temporal envelope cutoff frequency (noise band/160 Hz, sine wave/160 Hz, and sine wave/20 Hz). Vowel recognition was measured for 4 talkers, presented in either a single-talker context (1 talker per test block) or a multi-talker context (4 talkers per test block).

Results: CI users' vowel recognition was significantly poorer in the multi-talker context than in the single-talker context. When noise-band carriers were used in the simulations, NH performance was not significantly affected by talker variability. However, when sine-wave carriers were used in the simulations, NH performance was significantly affected by talker variability in both envelope filter conditions.

Conclusions: Because fundamental frequency was not preserved by the 20-Hz envelope filter and only partially preserved by the 160-Hz envelope filter, both spectral and temporal cues contributed to the talker variability effects observed with sine-wave carriers. Similarly, spectral and temporal cues may have contributed to the talker variability effects observed with CI participants.