• 음성과학
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.213-220
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• 2007

This study investigates the voice quality including F0, jitter, shimmer, and NHR for the children with cochlear implant (CI group) and those with normal hearing (NH group). The CI group was further classified two sub-groups depending upon the time of surgery (i.e. under four years vs. over four years). Three corner vowels (e.g. /a/, /i/, /u/) with extended vocalization were used and analyzed with Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (Kay Elemetrics, Model 4300). The statistics were made in two independent sample t-test with SPSS 11.5. The results can be summarized as follows: (1) The children with cochlear implanted before 4 years of age had very similar data with the NH group except for the vowel /a/. (2) The children with cochlear implanted after 4 years of age, however, indicated significant differences in Fo (/a/, /i/, /u/), Jitter (/e/), shimmer (/a/, /i/, /u/) and NHR(/a/) in all three vowels. It is concluded that the early CI surgery and the early intervention would be very important to maintain better voice quality.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제5권4호
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• pp.71-78
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to compare the acoustic voice outcomes of children with cochlear implant to those of children with normal hearing. Participants were 41 children using unilateral cochlear implant (18 males and 23 females), and children with normal hearing from the same age and sex. Mean age of implantation was approximately 3 years old, mean duration of implant use was 4 years in CI group. Acoustic analyses were performed using MDVP of CSL. Speech samples were 3 sustained vowels, /a, i, u/. 9 parameters (F0, Fhi, Flo, Jitter, Shimmer, vF0, vAm, NHR, and SPI) were analyzed. Children with CI did not show the significant differences in those parameters after the vowel /a/ phonation. Meanwhile, there were significantly different results in F0, Fhi, vF0, and SPI after /i, u/ phonation. These results revealed that differences of voice characteristics in children with CI compare to children with NH persist regarding vowel context. It suggests that high vowels would recommend as speech samples for acoustic evaluation. Futhermore perceptual analysis and speech therapy for phonation control would be necessary for children with CI.

• 음성과학
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.203-212
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• 2007

This study was to compare some acoustic characteristics of vowels produced by children with cochlear implant (CI) and the children with normal hearing. 20 subjects under ten years old were further classified into two groups (one group of CI children under four years old and the other group of CI children over four years old). For the normal hearing group, 20 subjects are participated in the experiment. Some acoustic parameters including fundamental frequency (F0) and formant frequencies (F1, F2) were measured in the two groups according to the age of cochlear implant operation. For the CI group, three comer vowels (/a/, /i/, /u/) were recorded five times in isolation and analyzed with Multi-Speech (Kay Elemetrics, model 3700), and two independent t-tests on their formant data were conducted using SPSS 11.5. The result showed that the implanted group over four years had a significant difference in F0 and F1 comparing with the implanted group under four years of age as well as the normal hearing group. Those values of the children with the implanted group under four years old were closer to those of the children with the normal hearing. As to the F2, there was no significant difference among implanted groups. However, it was shown that the vowel space for the implanted groups regardless the operation age indicated much smaller than that for the normal hearing children. This acoustic results suggest that CI surgery would be much more effective if it is done under the age of four years old.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.135-139
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: This study was undertaken to investigate the educational status in bilateral prelingual deaf children with a cochlear implant (CI), also known as early cochlear implantees (CIs). Type of schooling and enrollment rate of tertiary education were analyzed as primary results. Subjects and Methods: Participants in this study comprised a highly homogeneous group of deaf patients who underwent cochlear implantation at a similar age. Sixty-four Korean patients were enrolled. Statistical data for disabled populations and the general population were obtained from the National Statistics Korea. Results: Among 64 patients, 46, 8, and 10 attended mainstream, integrated, and special schools, respectively. Notably, there was a significant difference in the type of school between hearing-impaired and CI groups (p=0.007). Ten of 13 patients enrolled in tertiary education. Conclusions: CI users were more likely than hearing impaired students to attend mainstream school. The enrollment rate of CI users in tertiary education was the same as that of the general population.

• 대한청각학회지
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.135-139
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: This study was undertaken to investigate the educational status in bilateral prelingual deaf children with a cochlear implant (CI), also known as early cochlear implantees (CIs). Type of schooling and enrollment rate of tertiary education were analyzed as primary results. Subjects and Methods: Participants in this study comprised a highly homogeneous group of deaf patients who underwent cochlear implantation at a similar age. Sixty-four Korean patients were enrolled. Statistical data for disabled populations and the general population were obtained from the National Statistics Korea. Results: Among 64 patients, 46, 8, and 10 attended mainstream, integrated, and special schools, respectively. Notably, there was a significant difference in the type of school between hearing-impaired and CI groups (p=0.007). Ten of 13 patients enrolled in tertiary education. Conclusions: CI users were more likely than hearing impaired students to attend mainstream school. The enrollment rate of CI users in tertiary education was the same as that of the general population.

• 대한청각학회지
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.71-78
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: Currently limited information is available on speech stimuli processing at the subcortical level in the recipients of cochlear implant (CI). Speech processing in the brainstem level is measured using speech-auditory brainstem response (S-ABR). The purpose of the present study was to measure the S-ABR components in the sound-field presentation in CI recipients, and compare with normal hearing (NH) children. Subjects and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, participants were divided in two groups: patients with CIs; and NH group. The CI group consisted of 20 prelingual hearing impairment children (mean age=8.90±0.79 years), with ipsilateral CIs (right side). The control group consisted of 20 healthy NH children, with comparable age and sex distribution. The S-ABR was evoked by the 40-ms synthesized /da/ syllable stimulus that was indicated in the sound-field presentation. Results: Sound-field S-ABR measured in the CI recipients indicated statistically significant delayed latencies, than in the NH group. In addition, these results demonstrated that the frequency following response peak amplitude was significantly higher in CI recipients, than in the NH counterparts (p<0.05). Finally, the neural phase locking were significantly lower in CI recipients (p<0.05). Conclusions: The findings of sound-field S-ABR demonstrated that CI recipients have neural encoding deficits in temporal and spectral domains at the brainstem level; therefore, the sound-field S-ABR can be considered an efficient clinical procedure to assess the speech process in CI recipients.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.71-78
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: Currently limited information is available on speech stimuli processing at the subcortical level in the recipients of cochlear implant (CI). Speech processing in the brainstem level is measured using speech-auditory brainstem response (S-ABR). The purpose of the present study was to measure the S-ABR components in the sound-field presentation in CI recipients, and compare with normal hearing (NH) children. Subjects and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, participants were divided in two groups: patients with CIs; and NH group. The CI group consisted of 20 prelingual hearing impairment children (mean age=8.90±0.79 years), with ipsilateral CIs (right side). The control group consisted of 20 healthy NH children, with comparable age and sex distribution. The S-ABR was evoked by the 40-ms synthesized /da/ syllable stimulus that was indicated in the sound-field presentation. Results: Sound-field S-ABR measured in the CI recipients indicated statistically significant delayed latencies, than in the NH group. In addition, these results demonstrated that the frequency following response peak amplitude was significantly higher in CI recipients, than in the NH counterparts (p<0.05). Finally, the neural phase locking were significantly lower in CI recipients (p<0.05). Conclusions: The findings of sound-field S-ABR demonstrated that CI recipients have neural encoding deficits in temporal and spectral domains at the brainstem level; therefore, the sound-field S-ABR can be considered an efficient clinical procedure to assess the speech process in CI recipients.

• 말소리와 음성과학
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.67-78
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• 2016

This study examined the affective prosodic characteristics observed from the children with cochlear implant (CI, hereafter) and normal hearing (NH, hereafter) along with listener's perception on them. Speech samples were acquired from 15 normal and 15 CI children. 8 SLPs(Speech Language Pathologists) perceptually evaluated affective types using Praat's ExperimentMFC. When it comes to the acoustic results, there were statistically meaningful differences between 2 groups in affective types [joy (discriminated by intensity deviation), anger (by intensity-related variables dominantly and duration-related variables partly), and sadness (by all aspects of prosodic variables)]. CI's data are much more louder when expressing joy, louder and slower when expressing anger, and higher, louder, and slower when it comes to sadness than those of NH. The listeners showed much higher correlation when evaluating normal children than CI group(p<.001). Chi-square results revealed that listeners did not show coherence at CI's utterance, but did at those of NH's (CI(p<.01), normal(p=.48)). When CI utterances were discriminated into 3 emotional types by DA(Discriminant Analysis) using 8 acoustic variables, speed related variables such as articulation rate took primary role.

• 한국음향학회지
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• 제41권1호
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• pp.45-51
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• 2022

음질평가는 물리적 음향 자극에 대해 주관적으로 지각되는 음색을 평가한다는 측면에서 심리음향학적 측정과 관련이 있다. 본 논문은 인공와우 사용자의 음질평가를 위한 예비연구로서 바이모달 인공와우 사용자를 대상으로 음질평가를 시행하고 인공와우만 착용했을 때와 바이모달을 착용했을 때의 음질평가 차이를 파악하고자 하였다. 총 13명의 바이모달 인공와우 사용자와 7명의 편측 인공와우 사용자가 연구에 참여하였고 순음 및 어음 청력검사, 보청기 기능이득과 실이삽입이득을 측정하였다. 음질평가에서는 바이올린소리, 남자와 여자 노래소리, 냉장고 소음의 4개 음향자극을 방음실에서 들려주고 6개 음질평가 항목에 대해 0에서 10까지의 척도로 표시하도록 하였다. 검사결과 바이모달 사용자는 편측 인공와우만 착용했을 때보다 바이모달을 착용했을 때 음질평가 5개 항목에서 0.8점 높았고, 바이모달 사용자와 편측 인공와우 사용자 그룹간 비교에서는 두 그룹 사이에 차이를 보이지 않았다. 주관적 측면의 바이모달 혜택 측정을 위해서 좀 더 체계적인 음질평가 도구와 방법에 대한 후속 연구가 필요할 것으로 생각된다.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.112-117
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of revision cochlear implant (CI) surgery for better speech comprehension targeting patients with low satisfaction after first CI surgery. Subjects and Methods: Eight patients who could not upgrade speech processors because of an too early CI model and who wanted to change the whole system were included. After revision CI surgery, we compared speech comprehension before and after revision CI surgery. Categoies of Auditory Performance (CAP) score, vowel and consonant confusion test, Ling 6 sounds, word and sentence identification test were done. Results: The interval between surgeries ranged from eight years to 19 years. Same manufacturer's latest product was used for revision surgery in six cases of eight cases. Full insertion of electrode was possible in most of cases (seven of eight). CAP score (p-value=0.01), vowel confusion test (p-value=0.041), one syllable word identification test (p-value=0.026), two syllable identification test (p-value=0.028), sentence identification test (p-value=0.028) had significant improvement. Consonant confusion test (p-value=0.063), Ling 6 sound test (p-value=0.066) had improvement but it is not significant. Conclusions: Although there are some limitations of our study design, we could identify the effect of revision (upgrade) CI surgery indirectly. So we concluded that if patient complain low functional gain or low satisfaction after first CI surgery, revision (device upgrade) CI surgery is meaningful even if there is no device failure.