Vowel enhancement effects in cochlear-implant users

Auditory enhancement of certain frequencies can occur through prior stimulation of surrounding frequency regions. The underlying neural mechanisms are unknown, but may involve stimulus-driven changes in cochlear gain via the medial olivocochlear complex (MOC) efferents. Cochlear implants (CIs) bypas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2012-06, Vol.131 (6), p.EL421-EL426
Main Authors: Wang, Ningyuan, Kreft, Heather, Oxenham, Andrew J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biological and medical sciences
Cochlear Implants
Cochlear Nerve - physiology
Deafness - physiopathology
Diseases of the ear
Ent and stomatology
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Noise
Phonetics
Pitch Discrimination - physiology
Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects)
Young Adult
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Summary:Auditory enhancement of certain frequencies can occur through prior stimulation of surrounding frequency regions. The underlying neural mechanisms are unknown, but may involve stimulus-driven changes in cochlear gain via the medial olivocochlear complex (MOC) efferents. Cochlear implants (CIs) bypass the cochlea and stimulate the auditory nerve directly. If the MOC plays a critical role in enhancement then CI users should not exhibit this effect. Results using vowel stimuli, with and without preceding sounds designed to enhance formants, provided evidence of auditory enhancement in both normal-hearing listeners and CI users, suggesting that vowel enhancement is not mediated solely by cochlear effects.
ISSN:0001-4966
1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.4710838