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Background
Advances in cochlear implant technology have resulted in steady improvements in hearing for people with severe to profound deafness. Current cochlear implant users mostly obtain satisfactory speech understanding, however, less progress has occurred to improve perception of voice pitch and music, and speech understanding in background noise.
Detail
In order to improve pitch processing for cochlear implant users, the overall aim of this project is evaluate a number of possible pitch processing strategies to identify the most appropriate and viable, this will include:
1. examining pitch perception in normal and hearing impaired speakers of tonal and non-tonal languages
2. examining cognitive processing of pitch by normal hearers, hearing impaired people and cochlear implantees using the Macquarie magneto encephalography (MEG) facility
3. examining ways of testing the outcomes of various pitch processing strategies, for example, speech audiometry specifically targeting the evaluation of pitch processing for tone languages
4. developing a simulation of current and proposed pitch processing strategies - coupled with a simulation of a range of auditory factors (including auditory neuropathy and spread of current).
Project leadership
![[title]](http://www.hearingcrc.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/profile_260/content/people/rmannell2.jpg "Robert Mannell")
Project Team
Philip Newall, Stephen Crain, Bill Thompson, Shuo Wang , Vijay Marimuthu, Imran Dhamani
