Effects SNR Levels on Gap Detection Thresholds of Cochlear Implantees

Han, Soohee; Koo, Sungmin; Ha, Eunjung; Shin, Jungeun; Park, Hongju; Lim, Dukhwan

doi:2007.3.2.151

Audiol > Volume 3(2); 2007 > Article

Research Paper

Audiology 2007;3(2): 151-153.
Published online: December 31, 2007.
doi: http://doi.org/10.21848/audiol.2007.3.2.151

신호대잡음비가 인공와우착용자의 GDT에 미치는 영향

한수희¹, 구성민², 하은정¹, 신정은¹, 박홍주¹, 임덕환³

¹건국대학교 의과대학 이비인후과학교실
²한림대학교 대학원 청각학과
³한림대학교 언어청각학부 청각학과, 청각언어연구소

Effects SNR Levels on Gap Detection Thresholds of Cochlear Implantees

Soohee Han¹, Sungmin Koo², Eunjung Ha¹, Jungeun Shin¹, Hongju Park¹, Dukhwan Lim³

¹Department of Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, Kunguk University, Seoul, Korea
²Section of Audiology, Graduate School, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea
³Section of Audiology, Audiology & Speech Pathology Research Institute, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea

Correspondence

Soohee Han ,Tel: (02) 2030-5290, Fax: (02) 2030-5009, Email: suddori@hanmail.net

Received: July 15, 2007; Accepted: October 3, 2007. Published online: December 31, 2007.

ABSTRACT

Cochlear implantees often showed some degrees of difficulty in speech discrimination. In this task, fine temporal resolution or structure of the speech might be an important parameter for the correct discrimination. This temporal resolution could be measured using gap detection threshold. In this study, within-channel gap detection thresholds of cochlear implantees were analyzed under ipsilateral background noise conditions with various signal-to-noise ratios. Four adult cochlear implantees were examined for gap detection thresholds under quiet, +10, +5, 0, -5, -10 dB SNR conditions. These data were compared with those of normal adults (n=10) and elders (n=10) to assess the temporal ability of cochlear implantees under background noise conditions. In these results, cochlear implant group showed longest gap detection thresholds under quiet condition (mean 13.4 msec) while normal and elder groups exhibited 3.3 msec and 6.2 msec of mean values. Gap detection thresholds of cochlear implantees were deteriorated even more under ipsilateral noise conditions and demonstrated worse performances than the other two groups. In conclusion, cochlear impantees showed more difficulties in temporal performances than normal adults or elders did. Improvement in performances on temporal domain has been one of the critical issues for better speech perception in cochlear implantees. These data from gap detection performances under various noise conditions may be used as effective indications of assessing the rehabilitation in cochlear implantation.

Key Words: GDT·Cochlear implant·SNR.

중심단어: GDT· 인공와우· 신호대잡음비.