고도 이상의 청력손실을 가진 감각신경성난청(sensorineural hearing loss, SNHL)의 경우는 일차적으로 보청기의 착 용이 우선적이며, 3-6개월 동안의 재활을 통해서도 이득 효과를 볼 수 없는 경우에는 인공와우(cochlear implant, CI)를 고려해 볼 수 있다. 현재 사용하고 있는 CI는 과거에 비해서 기기의 지속적인 발전과 어음처리기법(speech coding strategies)의 개선으로 인하여 어음 인지의 개선에 많은 도움을 주고 있지만 여전히 소음 하에서의 어음청취에 취약함을 나타내고 있다(Nabelek, 2004; Nascimento & Belvilacgua, 2005).
The purpose of this study was to examine signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) needed sentence recognition threshold (SeRT) in 10 children with cochlear implant (CI), compared to 10 normal hearing (NH) children. Eight lists, each containing 10 sentences, of the Korean Standard Sentence Lists for School-Age (KS-SL-SA) were used under white noise condition to each group (10 NH and 10 CI children). SNRs were controlled at -6 to +15 dB and -15 to +6 dB by 3-dB step for CI and NH group, respectively. As results, the SeRTs were presented at +6.64 dB for CI and -9.73 dB for NH group. The slope of sentence recognition score was showed 10.6/dB and 22.6/dB for CI and NH, respectively as a function of SNRs. Consequently, CI children need better SNR compare to normal hearing to understand speech in noise. The results might be applied to determine useful SNR for CI user's aural rehabilitation. Further studies will be continued in terms of speech recognition in SNR, while considering speech materials, hearing threshold level, ages, and various noise.
INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES
