Contribution of frequency compressed temporal fine structure cues to the speech recognition in noise: An implication in cochlear implant signal processing

The study investigated the effect of proportionally frequency compressed encoding of temporal fine structure information on speech perception in noise using vocoder simulations of cochlear implant signal processing. The study proposed a pitch synchronous overlap-add algorithm (PSOLA) for downward frequency shifting of TFS. The speech recognition scores (SRS) were measured at-10 dB, 0 dB, and +10 dB for eight signal processing conditions corresponding to sinewave vocoder without TFS (NOTFS), four unshifted TFS conditions including full band TFS, TFS up to 2000, 1000, and 600 Hz, and three conditions with PSOLA which shifted 2000, 1000 and 600 Hz TFS to 1000, 500 and 300 Hz respectively. The original envelope was unchanged across the conditions. SRS at +10 dB and-10 dB SNR reached ceiling and floor respectively, in most conditions. Hence, SRS at 0 dB SNR was compared across the conditions. The results showed that the SRS was highest with full band TFS and lowest for the NO-TFS condition.The SRS for TFS 600 Hz shifted to 300 Hz through PSOLA was higher than the NO-TFS condition. Study findings suggest that encoding TFS by proportional frequency compression results in better speech perception in noise compared to NO-TFS. An important observation of this current study is that the speech recognition was better than the sine wave vocoder for all TFS conditions including frequency compressed 600 Hz TFS.(c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.