Hearing performance and voice acoustics of cochlear implanted children

Abstract

There was a correlation between the voice detection threshold and the frequency values of the sustained vowel and spontaneous speech of the studied population.

Parâmetros acústicos e perceptivoauditivos da voz de usuários de dispositivos auditivos

“…Some studies conducted with this specific population, in addition to the abovementioned findings, also inferred that there is a correlation between the auditory detection data and the capacity to maintain speech frequency, demonstrating that the hearing device, responsible for promoting the rehabilitation of the auditory threshold, has a strong relationship with voice quality (4)(5)(6) .…”

“…It is further believed that the degree of nasality may have interfered with the overall impression on the voice quality, as nasality is an aspect commonly cited as a distinctive marker of the voice of people with HL (1,2,15,16) and that the subjects with a higher degree of nasality were those who, in this study, had a higher general degree of deviation in voice quality. This finding is possibly related to the difference in time of auditory deprivation and absence of feedback in both groups, as various studies present this factor as a great influence on the voice quality of the person with HL (4,18,24) .…”

“…Concerning the acoustic parameters of voice assessed in this study, extracted from the sustained emission, the values of the fundamental frequency (f0), jitter, shimmer, and HNR were greatly similar between the groups. However, studies demonstrate that subjects with HL that used devices such as CI or HA presented changes in these parameters when compared with normal hearing subjects (4,(15)(16)(17)(18)(19) . Moreover, a study verified reduced f0 values in subjects with HL after the CI surgery when compared with the preoperative group (2) .…”

“…The person with HL has impaired auditory feedback -i.e., a lessened or absent auditory perception of the sound stimuli produced by their own voice when speaking, due to HL. Since the absence of auditory feedback has an impact on vocal control, a person lacking it creates inadequate voice production patterns and has difficulties in the reestablishment or improvement of their voice quality, and even in the voice rehabilitation process (4) .…”

“…Studies have described that auditory feedback deprivation influences the control of fundamental frequency and precision of speech articulation, in addition to acoustic parameters -such as shimmer (sound wave amplitude variation), jitter (wave frequency variation), harmonics-to-noise ratio, and formants -when compared with the standards established for normal hearing people (4)(5)(6) .…”