Resarch Overview at York University - spatial listening and quality of life with a CI

Hi all

Here are the details of the tests I took part in over the course of two 3 hour sessions

N.B: all tests were performed with clear voice switched off at the request of the testing team

Day 1 - implant only
Day 2 - implant with hearing aid on the other ear

Localisation tests - identifying which speaker the phrase "hello what's this?"

The phrase was transmitted from three speaker placed apart then 5 speakers close together. The speakers were in a semi circle and I was seated in the middle

Task - identify the speaker number the sound came from using the touch screen panel in front of me

Day 1 -  a lot of guess work in identifying which speaker the sound came from

Day 2 -  I was able to tell where the sound was coming from so I was able to be more accurate in identifying the location of the sound when a sound come from the middle speaker I had the sensation of "zoning" in on the sound other sounds appeared to come from "further" away

Sound tracking

Task - listen to the sound of a Door opening and closing and also a trumpet and horses hooves galloping and identify which direction the sound is travelling in

Day 1 again an element of guesswork in identifying the direction of sound

Day 2 I was able to tell more accurately which side the sound started and finished from

Identifying speech in noise

Task - the phrase "point to" followed by an object, these were displayed on the touch screen accompanied by increasing levels of "White" noise the sound came from the central speaker then left and right respectively

This was a tricky test!

Day 1 - did ok
Day 2 - some elements were slightly easier test was overall hard will need to wait till I receive my personalised results report at the end of next week to see the comparison

Identify what mood the person is in by the tone of voice identify this by using the touch screen options were sad, happy, neutral anxious and angry

Days 1 and 2 - as this test was so darn hard I detected little difference over the two days I found myself getting increasingly confused between when someone was anxious or happy!!!

Listen to a series of very short sentences in quiet spoken by a man then a different set by a woman and repeat back what was heard

Day 1 - excelled at this probably gained 100% score the womans voice was harder to understand (the test was rigged to do this)

Day 2 - same as day 1 (I think) womans voice sounded clearer and more pronounced

Listen to a series if long sentences some may sound weird in content all spoken by a male speaker

Day 1 - see above
Day 2 words sounded more pronounced and clearer

Name that tune! Identify the name of the "song" by touching the relevant title on the screen - the songs were composed in the computer using a series of beeps -VERY HARD!!!!

Songs were played as a practises run and asked to identify and told if right or wrong

Day 1 identified a few in the test run - no idea how well I did

Day 2 identified more tracks correctly at trial run thanks to my amazing musical memory and probably got more correct!

Phrase identification

Identify the phrase Roger Barry go to colour and number - identify this when one person is talking at the same time and then with multiple people talking at the same time (saying different phrases followed by a colour and a number

Day 1 considering that this was a hard test I think I performed rather well!

Day 2 sound seemed fuller test seemed even harder than day 1 perhaps I was getting more correct? Will be able to get the results from my personalised report!!

Using my aid for the tests I noticed some noticeable and subtle differences so I have decided to continue wearing my aid and I report the following observations.......

Sudden sounds sound sharp and at times painful!

Am able to hear at a wider scope than with implant alone

Was able to identify the direction the train was coming into the platform without looking up

Heard someone laughing/talking from behind me (another platform within the station

If there Is a lot of noise I can find sounds overwhelming eg the echo in the station

On the train had slight difficulty following the train announcement ( perhaps the announcement is of poor quality or unclear? Heard an announcement coming from another platform perfectly!

I think it's too early to be judgemental
As at the moment it's early days! I trust that this has been interesting reading!!!

Clear Voice "WOW" moment

I was travelling on a bus to meet some friends in a pub this evening. I was able to hear a young girl talking to her mother very clearly! I was not able to catch everything she was saying as I don;t think I was paying much attention to it.

Harmonised Hearing - General Thoughts

Time for an update and sorry it has been a while as I have been spending time fully experiencing my enhanced hearing abilities.

As I have mentioned in my previous updates on my current settings (c.v) is more effective in some environments than others.

For example by the roadside c.v goes into overkill mode making sounds a little too quiet! Standing here on a packed tube overall sounds are very quiet can hear the train announcements and door warning sound clearly.

In the office people do have loud voices! I feel like saying to them oh shut up for a minute!!

I have restarted ten pin bowling ahead of the start of the new league season! It seems to be that sounds are more effective with c.v turned off! It's pretty cool hearing the sounds of the balls rolling down the lanes and being returned!!! Once league nights begin a different story may be told........

People rave about c.v others don't like it so much I think it's all down to personal preference and the way people's programs are set up

My hearing seems to be less acute I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing? Maybe my brain is saying gimmie more sound?

I am having my follow up appointment with my audiologist next month and I would like to share some thoughts and seek advice/ideas from others.

I am thinking of asking for the following  settings

Program 1 idr 70 with clear voice
Program 2 idr 80 without c.v (for music)
Program 3 my current program idr 60 with cv with t coil activated?

Idr = input dynamic range

My thoughts on program one is to use this as my every day map having mire sound coming in with cv active may solve the issue with cv going into overkill mode and reduce sounds further as the noise level increases

Program 2 is self explanatory as currently unable to tell the difference in musical sound with cv on or off

Program 3 is my current map as this Is something to fall back on!

Any user experiences would be helpful here so please comment away those people who a reading this in newsletter format please go to my blog www.harmonisedhearing.blogspot.com if you wish to leave your comments or just sit tight for another update in the spring edition!

That's all for now

Hearing Ear How are you? – One month on report

21st September 2010

It has been just under one month since I was upgraded from my Auria processor to the Harmony. I am now using clear voice 24/7! This is surprising as I thought that I would not be able to have my processor’s sound go up and down.

Hearing in general sounds have “normalised” to the extent that my hearing is less acute than it was 2 and a half weeks ago. I still get the odd “wow” moment and I do hope that there will be more to come.

The results have been interesting so far. I have found that Clear voice works better in some environments better than others. I am now used to the more peaceful sound of traffic outside.

At a recent football match the whole experience was “heaven” Clear voice did an excellent job killing practically all of the unwanted low frequency background noise! The result was a very peaceful experience with the odd clear sounds of fans chanting!

At a couple of gatherings with friends and family painted two different pictures. One was in a group of 10 people all talking very loudly. Clear voice seemed to struggle to work at reducing “unwanted” noise as all sounds were competing for attention! I was able to hear the people closest to me but not the people down the other end of the table.

At the second gathering, I think the group was slightly smaller so listening was easier as less sounds were competing for equal attention!.

My worst hearing performance occurred at a recent work meeting within my workplace conference centre. The room acustics were just dreadful Clear Voice got rid of the air conditioning noise but did little to assist with the echo in the room. The result was people sounding as if talking down a long narrow tunnel. Some voices were clearer than others.

Music in general sounds very good on the whole. There are some rare instances where some musical pieces sound better with or without clear voice. This element I find rather confusing. High frequency sounds are generally better than the low frequency ones for me. Vocal clarity varies for me from singer to singer. Harmonies sound sweet and smooth and able to pick out individual voices. I am also attempting to expand my musical listening library to include bands or groups I have never heard of or listened to, for example the XX (Mercury prize winner) and Pepper and Piano  (from must be the music on Sky 1).

Tv watching has greatly improved since I last reported on this with everything sounding more normal.

Update coming soon

Hello everyone

An update will be forthcoming in the next few days thanks for your paitence

Clearvoice (C.V) faces its toughest test yet and it............ read on to find out

Well it has been just been over a week since the upgrade took place and after spending the week playing around with the two settings I decided to see what would happen if I kept Clear Voice on all day!
Out and about walking to the train station and getting to work I could detect C.V hard at work analysing the sounds around me. Traffic and train noises were kept at a very low level, including traffic noise – this however I still find a little worrying as it impaired my ability to hear traffic at a loud enough volume.
Train announcements came through clearly. In the office building C.V settled down to a “normalised” hearing level this being some noises at a quieter level than others, however still managing to pick up speech very clearly (even if at times I did not catch all of the office gossip!)
As the day wore on I was able to detect noticeable differences to the various sound levels. In the shop I could hear the background music clearly and fairly loud! This is supposed to be background music!
Listening to music at home with C.V switched on takes this up to the next level as its coming through clearer than ever before! It appears that C.V has identified music as music and the dip in sound level is not noticeable.
Clear Voice is working well for me after one full days use. I’m in the middle of watching Waterloo road and I can hear the background music within the programme itself!
More soon.....

Clear Voice – an explanation

Clear Voice is the name given to the software that works to reduce unwanted sounds to a comfortable level in order for the user to understand speech more easily in noisy conditions. How a person reacts to the software varies from person to person. My experiences are contained in this blog. The name “clear voice” may be a misconception I will be exploring this topic in a future blog post of mine.


I will explain other Cochlear Implant terminology as I use them.