Nonlinear cochlear signal processing and phoneme perception

Jont B. Allen, Marion Régnier, Sandeep Phatak, L. I. Feipeng

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The most important communication signal is human speech. It is helpful to think of speech communication in terms of Claude Shannon's information theory channel model. When thus viewed, it immediately becomes clear that the most complex part of speech communication channel is in auditory system (the receiver). In my opinion, even after years of work, relatively little is know about how the human auditory system decodes speech. Given cochlear damaged, speech scores are greatly reduced, even with tiny amounts of noise. The exact reasons for this SNR-loss presently remain unclear, but I speculate that the source of this must be cochlear outer hair cell temporal processing, not central processing. Specifically, “temporal edge enhancement” of the speech signal and forward masking could easily be modified in such ears, leading to SNR-Loss. What ever the reason, SNR-Loss is the key problem that needs to be fully researched.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationConcepts and Challenges in the Biophysics of Hearing - Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on the Mechanics of Hearing, MoH 2008
EditorsNigel P. Cooper, David T. Kemp
PublisherWorld Scientific Publishing Co. Pte Ltd
Pages93-105
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9789812833778
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008
Event10th International Workshop on the Mechanics of Hearing - Concepts and Challenges in the Biophysics of Hearing, MoH 2008 - Newcastle, United Kingdom
Duration: Jul 27 2008Jul 31 2008

Publication series

NameConcepts and Challenges in the Biophysics of Hearing - Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on the Mechanics of Hearing, MoH 2008

Conference

Conference10th International Workshop on the Mechanics of Hearing - Concepts and Challenges in the Biophysics of Hearing, MoH 2008
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityNewcastle
Period7/27/087/31/08

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Biomedical Engineering

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