Speech intelligibility index for cochlear implant (Lee et al., 2019)

Purpose: Although the speech intelligibility index (SII) has been widely applied in the field of audiology and other related areas, application of this metric to cochlear implants (CIs) has yet to be investigated. In this study, SIIs for CI users were calculated to investigate whether the SII could be an effective tool for predicting speech perception performance in a population with CI.Method: Fifteen pre- and postlingually deafened adults with CI participated. Speech recognition scores were measured using the AzBio sentence lists. CI users also completed questionnaires and performed psychoacoustic (spectral and temporal resolution) and cognitive function (digit span) tests. Obtained SIIs were compared with predicted SIIs using a transfer function curve. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted on perceptual and demographic predictor variables to investigate the association between these factors and speech perception performance.Result: Because of the considerably poor hearing and large individual variability in performance, the SII did not predict speech performance for this CI group using the traditional calculation. However, new SII models were developed incorporating predictive factors, which improved the accuracy of SII predictions in listeners with CI.Conclusion: Conventional SII models are not appropriate for predicting speech perception scores for CI users. Demographic variables (aided audibility and duration of deafness) and perceptual–cognitive skills (gap detection and auditory digit span outcomes) are needed to improve the use of the SII for listeners with CI. Future studies are needed to improve our CI-corrected SII model by considering additional predictive factors.Supplemental Material S1. Auditory thresholds and speech perception scores obtained from 15 cochlear implant (CI) participants.Lee, S., Mendel, L. L., & Bidelman, G. M. (2019). Prediction speech recognition using the speech intelligibility index and other variables for cochlear implant users. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62, 1517–1531. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-H-18-0303

目的：尽管语音可懂度指数（SII）在听力学及其他相关领域得到了广泛应用，但将该指标应用于耳蜗植入器（CI）的研究尚未展开。本研究旨在通过计算耳蜗植入用户的SIIs，探究SII是否能够作为一种有效的预测工具，预测CI用户群体中的语音感知表现。
方法：十五名耳蜗植入的成人在此研究中参与。使用AzBio句子列表测量了语音识别分数。耳蜗植入用户还完成了问卷，并进行了心理声学（频谱和时间分辨率）及认知功能（数字广度）测试。获得的SIIs与使用转移函数曲线预测的SIIs进行了比较。对感知和人口统计学预测变量进行了相关性分析和回归分析，以探究这些因素与语音感知表现之间的关联。
结果：由于听觉显著下降及个体表现存在较大差异，传统的SII计算方法未能预测此CI群体的语音表现。然而，通过纳入预测因素的新的SII模型得到了开发，这提高了在耳蜗植入听众中SII预测的准确性。
结论：传统的SII模型不适用于预测耳蜗植入用户的语音感知分数。人口统计学变量（辅助可听度和聋哑持续时间）及感知-认知技能（差距检测和听觉数字广度结果）对于提高SII在耳蜗植入听众中的应用至关重要。未来的研究需要通过考虑额外的预测因素来改进我们的CI校正SII模型。
补充材料S1：来自15名耳蜗植入（CI）参与者的听觉阈值和语音感知分数。Lee, S., Mendel, L. L., & Bidelman, G. M. (2019). 基于语音可懂度指数和其他变量预测耳蜗植入用户的语音识别。言语、语言和听力研究杂志，62，1517–1531. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-H-18-0303