• 전자통신동향분석
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• 제8권2호
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• pp.69-91
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• 1993

In the conventional speech processing, the technique of FFT(Fast Fourier Transform) is usually applied to the finite number of samples within the window of specified length using the fixed sampling rate. In this case, the temporal resolution is dependent upon the length of window while the spectral resolution is dependent upon the number of samples within the window. Thus, once the temporal resolution is determined the spectral resolution is also determined or vice versa. To resolve this type of dilemma, a new type of bank-filter similar to the characteristics of cochlear model needs to be considered. Furthermore, wide dynamic range of cochlea certainly helps the stable extraction of speech features. In the paper, the human auditory system will be briefly introduced and previous works on auditory preprocessors based on cochlear model will be reviewed. As a conclusion, the design considerations of auditory preprocessors based on cochlear model will be addressed.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.133-139
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: The Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) test is a clinically effective measure of the integrity of the central auditory nervous system. The GIN procedure can be applied to a pediatric population above 7 years of age. The present study conducted the GIN test to compare the abilities of auditory temporal resolution among typically developing children, children with speech sound disorder (SSD), and children with cognitive difficulty (CD). Subjects and Methods: Children aged 8 to 11 years-(total n=30) participated in this study. There were 10 children in each of the following three groups: typically developing children, children with SSD, and children with CD. The Urimal Test of Articulation and Phonology was conducted as a clinical assessment of the children's articulation and phonology. The Korean version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (K-WISC-III) was administered as a screening test for general cognitive function. According to the procedure of Musiek, the pre-recorded stimuli of the GIN test were presented at 50 dB SL. The results were scored by the approximated threshold and the overall percent correct score (%). Results: All the typically developing children had normal auditory temporal resolution based on the clinical cutoff criteria of the GIN test. The children with SSD or CD had significantly reduced gap detection performance compared to age-matched typically developing children. The children's intelligence score measured by the K-WISC-III test explained 37% of the variance in the percent-correct score. Conclusions: Children with SSD or CD exhibited poorer ability to resolve rapid temporal acoustic cues over time compared to the age-matched typically developing children. The ability to detect a brief temporal gap embedded in a stimulus may be related to the general cognitive ability or phonological processing.

• 대한청각학회지
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.133-139
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: The Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) test is a clinically effective measure of the integrity of the central auditory nervous system. The GIN procedure can be applied to a pediatric population above 7 years of age. The present study conducted the GIN test to compare the abilities of auditory temporal resolution among typically developing children, children with speech sound disorder (SSD), and children with cognitive difficulty (CD). Subjects and Methods: Children aged 8 to 11 years-(total n=30) participated in this study. There were 10 children in each of the following three groups: typically developing children, children with SSD, and children with CD. The Urimal Test of Articulation and Phonology was conducted as a clinical assessment of the children's articulation and phonology. The Korean version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (K-WISC-III) was administered as a screening test for general cognitive function. According to the procedure of Musiek, the pre-recorded stimuli of the GIN test were presented at 50 dB SL. The results were scored by the approximated threshold and the overall percent correct score (%). Results: All the typically developing children had normal auditory temporal resolution based on the clinical cutoff criteria of the GIN test. The children with SSD or CD had significantly reduced gap detection performance compared to age-matched typically developing children. The children's intelligence score measured by the K-WISC-III test explained 37% of the variance in the percent-correct score. Conclusions: Children with SSD or CD exhibited poorer ability to resolve rapid temporal acoustic cues over time compared to the age-matched typically developing children. The ability to detect a brief temporal gap embedded in a stimulus may be related to the general cognitive ability or phonological processing.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.83-88
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a disorder that usually occurs in the elderly, leading to dementia in some progressive cases. The purpose of this study is to examine the utility of central auditory processing tests as early diagnostic tools for identifying the elderly with MCI. Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted on 20 elderly patients with MCI and 20 healthy matched peers. The speech perception ability in a quiet environment and in the presence of background noise and also temporal resolution were assessed by using Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) and Gap in Noise (GIN) tests, respectively. Results: The results indicated that the ability to understand speech in a quiet environment did not differ significantly between the two groups. However, SPIN at the three signal-to-noise ratios and the temporal resolution scores were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.001). Conclusions: Individuals with MCI appear to have poorer speech comprehension in noise and a lower temporal resolution than those of the same age, but without cognitive defects. Considering the utility of these tests in identifying cognitive problems, we propose that since the GIN test seems to be less influenced by intervening factors, this test can therefore, be a useful tool for the early screening of elderly people with cognitive problems.

• 대한청각학회지
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.83-88
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a disorder that usually occurs in the elderly, leading to dementia in some progressive cases. The purpose of this study is to examine the utility of central auditory processing tests as early diagnostic tools for identifying the elderly with MCI. Subjects and Methods: This study was conducted on 20 elderly patients with MCI and 20 healthy matched peers. The speech perception ability in a quiet environment and in the presence of background noise and also temporal resolution were assessed by using Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) and Gap in Noise (GIN) tests, respectively. Results: The results indicated that the ability to understand speech in a quiet environment did not differ significantly between the two groups. However, SPIN at the three signal-to-noise ratios and the temporal resolution scores were significantly different between the two groups (p<0.001). Conclusions: Individuals with MCI appear to have poorer speech comprehension in noise and a lower temporal resolution than those of the same age, but without cognitive defects. Considering the utility of these tests in identifying cognitive problems, we propose that since the GIN test seems to be less influenced by intervening factors, this test can therefore, be a useful tool for the early screening of elderly people with cognitive problems.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.421-428
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• 1997

초전도양자간섭소자(SQUID)를 이용한 자장센서는 현재 개발된 자장센서중에서 감도가 가장 우수한 소자로서 인체의 두뇌에서 발생하는 매우 미약한 자장에 측정이 가능하다. 뇌자도측정은 현재 많이 사용되고 있는 전기적인 측정(뇌파, 뇌유발전위) 에 비해 공간분해능이 우수하고, fMRI나 PET에 비해서는 시간분해능이 우수하므로 뇌기능연구에 유용하게 사용될 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 뇌자도 측정을 위하여 4-채널 SQUID시스템을 개발하였다. 개발된 시스템의 주요 특징은 새로운 방식의 SQUID센서를 채택함으로서 간단한 회로로써 SQUID구동이 가능하도록 하였으며, 검출코일의 신뢰성을 향상시키기 위하여 집적화된 평면형 코일을 사용하였다. 외부 환경잡음을 소거하기 위하여 자기차폐실을 설치하였고, 개발된 SQUID 시스템을 이용하여 뇌의 청각령으로부터 발생하는 자기신호를 측정하였다.

• 한국초전도ㆍ저온공학회논문지
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.34-37
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• 2015

Developing Magnetoencephalography (MEG) based on Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) facilitates to observe the human brain functions in non-invasively and high temporal and high spatial resolution. By using this MEG, we studied alpha rhythm (8-13 Hz) that is one of the most predominant spontaneous rhythm in human brain. The 8-13 Hz rhythm is observed in several sensory region in the brain. In visual related region of occipital, we call to alpha rhythm, and auditory related region of temporal call to tau rhythm, sensorimotor related region of parietal call to mu rhythm. These rhythms are decreased in task related region and increased in task irrelevant regions. This means that these rhythms play a pivotal role of inhibition in task irrelevant region. It may be helpful to attention to the task. In several literature about the alpha-band inhibition in multi-sensory modality experiment, they observed this effect in the occipital and somatosensory region. In this study, we hypothesized that we can also observe the alpha-band inhibition in the auditory cortex, mediated by the tau rhythm. Before that, we first investigated the existence of the alpha and tau rhythm in occipital and temporal region, respectively. To see these rhythms, we applied the visual and auditory stimulation, in turns, suppressed in task relevant regions, respectively.

• 방송공학회논문지
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• 제24권5호
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• pp.735-742
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• 2019

본 논문에서는 스파이크그램을 기반으로 음소 인식을 위한 특성을 추출하는 방법을 제안한다. 음소 인식에 널리 사용되는 푸리에 변환 기반의 특성은 청각 기관의 동작에 부합하는 과정으로 구해지지 않으며 프레임 단위로 추출되어 높은 시간 해상도를 가지지 못한다. 따라서 음소 인식의 성능 향상을 위해 높은 시간 해상도를 가지면서 인간의 청각기관을 모델링 하는 새로운 음성 특성 추출 기술이 요구된다. 본 논문에서는 청각 기관의 특성 추출 및 전달 과정을 모델링 하는 기법인 스파이크그램을 사용하여 음성 신호를 분석하고, 이로부터 음소 인식을 위한 특성을 추출하는 방법을 제안한다. 심층 신경망 기반의 음소 인식기를 사용하여 제안한 특성의 음소 인식 성능을 측정하였고, 짧은 음소에 대해 제안 특성이 기존 푸리에 변환 기반의 특성보다 우수한 성능을 가지는 것을 확인하였다. 이 결과로부터 청각 모델을 기반으로 추출된 새로운 음성 특성을 사용하여 음소 인식이 가능함을 확인할 수 있다.

• 한국음향학회지
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• 제41권1호
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• pp.58-63
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• 2022

본 연구는 저주파수 순음(264 Hz, 373 Hz, 528 Hz)을 이용하여 Within-/Cross-Channel Gap Detection Thresholds(WC/CC GDTs)를 통해서 피치인식 및 시간적 청각정보처리능력 특성을 알아보기 위해 실험연구를 실시하였다. 정상청력을 갖는 청년층 40명과 장년층 20명을 대상으로 WC/CC GDTs를 측정·비교분석하였다. WC GDTs 결과는 두 그룹 모두 평균적으로 2 ms ~ 4 ms를 갖으며, 통계적으로 유의미한 차이를 보이지 않았다. CC GDTs는 WC GDTs에 비해 두 그룹 모두 크게 증가하였으며, 특히 장년층의 결과가 청년층 결과에 비해 모두 8배 ~ 10배 증가하여 통계적으로 유의미한 차이를 보였다. CC GDTs는 선/후행음의 주파수의 차이가 커질수록 모두 증가하는 경향이 나타났으며, 청년층은 증가폭이 일정한 반면 장년층은 증가폭이 둔화되는 경향을 보였다. 또한, 이러한 자료는 기존 음악적 자극에 대한 GDT와는 다른 경향을 나타내었다. 연구 결과는 GDT가 피치인식 메커니즘에 영향을 미칠 수 있으며 청각 신경계의 비선형 반응에 대한 심리음향적 근거자료로 활용될 수 있을 것이다.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.146-151
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: The relationship between hearing aid (HA) use and improvement in cognitive function is not fully known. This study aimed to determine whether HAs could recover temporal resolution or hearing in noise functions. Materials and Methods: We designed a prospective study with two groups: HA users and controls. Patients older than 45 years, with a pure tone average threshold of worse than 40 dB and a speech discrimination score better than 60% in both ears were eligible. Central auditory processing tests and hearing in noise tests (HINTs) were evaluated at the beginning of the study and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the use of a monaural HA in the HA group compared to the control group. The changes in the evaluation parameters were statistically analyzed using the linear mixed model. Results: A total of 26 participants (13 in the HA and 13 in the control group) were included in this study. The frequency (p<0.01) and duration test (p=0.02) scores showed significant improvements in the HA group after 1 year, while the HINT scores showed no significant change. Conclusions: After using an HA for one year, patients performed better on temporal resolution tests. No improvement was documented with regard to hearing in noise.