Graeme Clark Collection

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    Speech processing for cochlear implants
    Tong, Y. C. ; Millar, J. B. ; Blamey, P. J. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Dowell, R. C. ; Patrick, J. F. ; Seligman, P. M. (JAI Press Ltd, 1992)
    The cochlear implant is a hearing prosthesis designed to replace the function of the ear. The operation of the prosthesis can be described as a sequence of four functions: the processing of the acoustic signal received by a microphone; the transfer of the processed signal through the skin; the creation of neural activity in the auditory nerve; and the integration of the experience of this neural activity into the perceptual and cognitive processing of the implantee.
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    Cochlear implants in children, adolescents, and prelinguistically deafened adults: speech perception
    Dawson, Pam. W ; Blamey, Peter J. ; Rowland, Louise C. ; Dettman, Shani J. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Busby, Peter A. ; Brown, Alison M. ; Dowell, Richard C. ; Rickards, Field W. ( 1992)
    A group of 10 children, adolescents, and prelinguistically deafened adults were implanted with the 22-electrode cochlear implant (Cochlear Pty Ltd) at the University of Melbourne Cochlear Implant Clinic and have used the prosthesis for periods from 12 to 65 months. Postoperative performance on the majority of closed-set speech perception tests was significantly greater than chance, and significantly better than preoperative performance for all of the patients. Five of the children have achieved substantial scores on open-set speech tests using hearing without lipreading. Phoneme scores in monosyllabic words ranged from 30% to 72%; word scores in sentences ranged from 26% to 74%. Four of these 5 children were implanted during preadolescence (aged 5:5 to 10:2 years) and the fifth, who had a progressive loss, was implanted during adolescence (aged 14:8 years). The duration of profound deafness before implantation varied from 2 to 8 years. Improvements were also noted over postoperative data collection times for the younger children. The remaining 5 patients who did not demonstrate open-set recognition were implanted after a longer duration of profound deafness (aged 13:11 to 20:1 years). The results are discussed with reference to variables that may affect implant performance, such as age at onset of loss, duration of profound loss, age at implantation, and duration of implantation. They are compared with results for similar groups of children using hearing aids and cochlear implants.
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    The development of speech processing strategies for the University of Melbourne/cochlear multiple channel implantable hearing prosthesis.
    Clark, Graeme M. ( 1992)
    The speech processing strategies that have been used with the University of Melbourne/Cochlear multiple channel implantable hearing prosthesis have been developed systematically from the inaugural one that extracted the second formant and presented this on a place coding basis and the voicing frequency which determined the rate of stimulation. Speech processing has also depended heavily on biological research to ensure that the stimulus parameters used or the operative approach did not damage the spiral ganglion cells it was hoped to stimulate. The advances in speech processing from Melbourne primarily have been to extract more features and spectral information and present this on a place coding basis. This has led to a progressive improvement in speech perception, and a small number of patients can achieve nearly 100% correct scores for open sets of phonetically-balanced words using electrical stimulation alone.
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    A new portable sound processor for the University of Melbourne/ Nucleus Limited multielectrode cochlear implant
    McDermott, Hugh J. ; McKay, Colette M. ; Vandali, Andrew E. ( 1992)
    Abstract not available due to copyright.
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    Cochlear implants in children, adolescents, and prelinguistically deafened adults: speech perception
    Dawson, Pam W. ; Blamey, Peter J. ; Rowland, Louise C. ; Dettman, Shani J. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Busby, Peter A. ; Brown, Alison M. ; Dowell, Richard C. ; Rickards, Field W. ( 1992)
    A group of 10 children, adolescents, and prelinguistically deafened adults were implanted with the 22-electrode cochlear implant (Cochlear Ply Ltd) at the University of Melbourne Cochlear Implant Clinic and have used the prosthesis for periods from 12 to 65 months. Postoperative performance on the majority of closed-set speech perception tests was significantly greater than chance, and significantly better than preoperative performance for all of the patients. Five of the children have achieved substantial scores on open-set speech tests using hearing without lipreading. Phoneme scores in monosyllabic words ranged from 30% to 72%; word scores in sentences ranged from 26% to 74%. Four of these 5 children were implanted during preadolescence (aged 5:5 to 10:2 years) and the fifth, who had a progressive loss, was implanted during adolescence (aged 14:8 years). The duration of profound deafness before implantation varied from 2 to 8 years. Improvements were also noted over postoperative data collection times for the younger children. The remaining 5 patients who did not demonstrate open-set recognition were implanted after a longer duration of profound deafness (aged 13:11to 20:1 years). The results are discussed with reference to variables that may affect implant performance, such as age at onset of loss, duration of profound loss, age at implantation, and duration of implantation. They are compared with results for similar groups of children using hearing aids and cochlear implants.
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    The clinical trial of a multi-channel cochlear prosthesis
    Pyman, B. C. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Dowell, R. C. ; Webb, R. L. ; Brown, A. M. ; Bailey, Q. E. ; Luscombe, S. M. ( 1983)
    The results of a multiple-electrode cochlear implant carried out on 1st August, 1978 on a totally deaf patient (post-lingual hearing loss) showed that he could perceive sounds of different pitches depending on the electrode stimulated, and this finding was consistent with the place theory of frequency coding. Furthermore, stimulating individual electrodes produced percepts which the patient described as vowel-like in quality. The patient could also perceive different pitches which varied with the rate of stimulation up to 200 pulses/second, but at higher rates he had difficulties perceiving pitch changes (Clark et al. 1978; Tong et al, 1979). As a result of the psychophysical studies a speech processor was developed. The speech processor extracted: firstly, the voicing frequency to help the patient hear the rhythm of speech and know whether a speech sound was voiced or unvoiced (e.g., /b/ versus /p/); and, secondly, the second formant to enable the patient to recognize vowels and consonants and so hear words. In order to maximize speech intelligibility, the second formant stimulated an appropriate electrode, and the rate of stimulation on that electrode was related to the voicing frequency.
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    Preoperative hearing aid evaluations for cochlear implant patients: a preliminary report using a minimal auditory capabilities battery
    Martin, L. F. A. ; Dowell, R. C. ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 1983)
    Two profoundly deaf patients were evaluated using the Minimal Auditory Capabilities (MAC) battery of speech discrimination tests. One patient was a multiple-channel cochlear implant patient (MC1) using a wearable speech-processor, the other a prospective cochlear implant patient using a hearing aid (HA). Results from the MAC battery showed that MC1 received significantly more auditory information via the speech-processor than was provided by the hearing aid to HA. These results indicated that the cochlear implant could be a suitable alternative for HA. However, the results indicated that HA gained some minimal benefit from the hearing aid and these results should be taken into consideration when deciding which ear should be implanted.
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    Clinical trial of a multiple-channel cochlear prosthesis: an initial study in four patients with profound total hearing loss
    Bailey, Quentin R. ; Seligman, Peter M. ; Tong, Yit. C. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Dowell, R. C. ; Brown, Alison M. ; Luscombe, Susan M. ; Pyman, Brian C. ; Webb, Robert L. ( 1983)
    The clinical trial of a multiple-channel cochlear prosthesis was undertaken in four patients with postlingual deafness and profound total hearing loss. The results of open-set speech tests confirmed that, using electrical stimulation alone, one patient could have a meaningful conversation with resorting to lipreading (for example, this patient uses the prosthesis to converse with her husband on the telephone). The results of closed-set speech tests also suggested that a multiple-channel stimulator is more effective than a single-channel one in conveying speech information. The cochlear prosthesis was especially effective in all four patients when it was used in conjunction with lipreading, and speech-tracking tests showed that the patients could combine the information obtained from both electrical stimulation and lipreading.
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    A multiple-channel cochlear implant and wearable speech-processor: an audiological evaluation
    Tong, Y. C. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Dowell, R. C. ; Martin, L. F. ; Seligman, P. M. ; Patrick, J. F. ( 1981)
    Standard audiological tests were administered to a totally deft multiple-channel cochlear implant patient with a wearable speech-processor in a monitored sound field under the following conditions: a wearable unit activated alone (WA), lipreading with the wearable unit off (LA), and wearable unit activated in combination with lipreading (WL). Thresholds obtained for narrow-band noise signals indicated that the wearable unit allowed the patient to detect a variety of sounds at different frequencies. The results obtained in closed-set word tests and open-set word and sentence tests showed significant improvements in word and sentence scores from LA to WL. In the open-se (C.I.D) sentence tests, the patient scored 22% for LA and 76% for WL. The WL score of 76% correlates with a satisfactory performance in understanding connected speech. The patient also scored 30% correct in a test involving the recognition of environmental sounds.
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    An extension of the Multipeak speech processing strategy for the MSP/MINI 22 cochlear implant system
    Jones, P. A. ; McDermott, H. J. ; Sellgman, P. M. ; Millar, J. B. ( 1992)
    The speech perception of three post-linguistically deaf adults using the Nucleus MSP/Mini System 22 cochlear implant system programmed with a new speech processing strategy, MPEAK+AO. was evaluated. The MPEAK+AO strategy retains all the information of the standard Multipeak speech processing strategy and additionally presents acoustic components below 400Hz to the most-apical electrode. This extra spectral Information may help implantees understand speech, particularly in noise. Since the estimated fundamental frequency is presented as the rate of stimulation at a fixed intracochlear site and is thereby potentially perceived more easily. and the amplitude of the stimulation on the apical electrode, associated with the voice fundamental, Is directly determined from the estimated energy in the relevant spectral region. these coding factors may provide a better representation ot the prosodic information in speech and a more complete auditory feedback signal. The comparison between Multipeak and MPEAK+AO included tests of vowel, consonant and CNC word recognition. Speech materials were presented with both a male and female speaker. Sentence material. presented with background masking noise (four-speaker babble) was also used. The results showed that the new strategy significantly improved the ability of these MSP users to recognise words in open-set sentences in noisy conditions.