Categorical perception (CP) is the unique phenomenon that gradually morphed physical feature in a stimulus continuum tends to be perceived as discrete representations. CP has been evidenced in several modalities in the sensor perception. The first study of CP of phonetic perception was performed in 1957. However, the early CP studies focused on segmental features. The first study of CP of pitch contours was performed until 1976. This article will review the results of previous studies focus on the categorical perception applies to the lexical tone perception.
Humans ; Language ; Phonetics ; Speech Perception

The incidence of hearing impairment in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) was much higher than that of well-baby nursery. The incidence of the former was 2%-4%, whereas that of the latter was 0.1%-0.3%. Furthermore, the incidence of auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder, progressive and delayed hearing loss was also higher than those of other infants. Therefore, the newborn hearing screening program in NICU has become an important part of pediatric audiology. In this paper, we reviewed the previous studies and suggested the special procedure of hearing screening and following-up which based on the physiological and pathological characteristics of NICU in order to detect hearing impaired as early as possible.
Hearing Disorders ; diagnosis ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal ; Neonatal Screening

Previous studies have shown that hearing loss people are more likely to have not only abnormal speech communication, but also psychological problems especially emotional disorders, cognitive impairments and personality defects. Therefore, it is necessary to provide psychological support to patients during they accept medical therapy.
Communication ; Hearing Loss ; complications ; psychology ; Humans ; Mental Disorders ; Mental Health ; Speech

Objective To analyze the characteristics of spontaneous otoacoustic emission in full-term newbo‐rns .Methods The Capella OAE equipment (Madsen ,Denmark) was used to test Spontaneous Otoacoustic Emission (SOAE) in 147 cases (236ears) who have passed the newborn hearing screening with TEOAE(Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions) .Results The SOAE incidence was 56 .77% (male 41 .51% ,female 69 .23% ;left ear 49 .14% ,right ear 64 .17% ) .It was significantly higher in females (P<0 .05) and in right ear (P<0 .05) .The av‐erage amplitude was 11 .78 ± 8 .36 dB SPL( 11 .73 ± 8 .25 dB in male ,11 .81 ± 8 .43 dB SPL in female;11 .97 ± 8 .56 dB SPL in the left ear ,11 .65 ± 8 .22 dB SPL in the right ear) .There were significant differences in genders(P<0 .01) .The frequency of SOAE focused on 3 .2~ 3 .7 kHz(2 .9~3 .4 kHz in males ,3 .4~3 .9 kHz in females ;3 .2~3 .7 kHz in the left ears ,3 .2~3 .6 kHz in the right ears) .There were significant differences in genders(P<0 .01) .The average peak of SOAE was 3 .70 ± 2 .75(3 .86 ± 2 .87 in males ,3 .62 ± 2 .70 in females;3 .70 ± 3 .02 in the left ears ,3 .70 ± 2 .55 in the right ears) .There were no significant differences in genders and laterality .Conclusion The characteristics of SOAE in full-term newborns include higher incidences ,multiple peaks and high frequency distribution .

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the physical and mental health status of post-linguistic cochlear implantees, and then to explore the effectiveness on of different rehabilitation programs. METHOD: Mandarin hearing in noise test (MHINT), personal report of communication apprehension (PRCA-24) and Nijmegen cochlear implant questionnaire (NCIQ) were used to measure the hearing ability, mental health degree and the health related life quality in 36 post-linguistic cochlear implant users, respectively. The improvement of subjects' physical and mental health levels was compared with among different rehabilitation programs, including family training program, auditory habilitation program and psychological intervention program. RESULT: (1) Family training program only can improve the subject's hearing ability (P < 0.05), but failed to ease the communication apprehension; ((2) Auditory habilitation program can both significantly improve the subjects' hearing ability (P < 0.01) and ease the fear of talking face to face (P < 0.01); (3) Psychological intervention program can significantly increase the auditory abilities (P < 0.01), reduce the communication apprehension (P < 0.01) and improve the quality of life. CONCLUSION Post-linguistic cochlear implantees had obvious mental symptoms. It was very important to design an effective rehabilitation program to improvement the living quality of hearing loss people.
Anxiety ; Cochlear Implantation ; rehabilitation ; Cochlear Implants ; Deafness ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Language ; Linguistics ; Mental Health ; Noise ; Quality of Life ; Speech ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the mental health level of the post-linguistic deafen adult, to analyze factors affecting the mental health level. METHOD: Fifty-two adult patients with severe to extremely severe post-linguistic hearing loss were randomly selected to participate the study. A self-reporting questionnaire drew up by researchers was used to collect sociological data of the participants. The self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), self-rating depression scale (SDS) and personal report of communication apprehension (PRCA-24) were used to measure the mental health degree of 52 post-linguistic hearing loss adults. To analyze related factors affecting the mental health in post-linguistic deafen adult. RESULT: (1) Majority of post-linguistic deafen adult have mental symptoms, including 24 subjects (46.15%) with anxiety feeling, 18 subjects (34.61%) with depression feeling and 45 subjects (86.54%) with communication apprehension. (2) Gander, with/without tinnitus, duration of hearing loss, education background and family support had significant correlation with the mental health level of subjects. Higher incident rate of mental symptoms were found in male (OR = 2.246), with tinnitus (OR = 0.536), short duration (OR = 1.397, 1.530), high education background (OR = 0.323) and poor family support (OR = 1.724). CONCLUSION The mental health of the post-linguistic deafen adult was worse than that of the normal people, pathological feature and sociological factors were significantly correlated to the psychological evaluation. It is very important to pay attention on mental health and to give effective counseling of hearing loss people.
Adult ; Anxiety ; complications ; Depression ; complications ; Female ; Hearing Loss ; complications ; psychology ; Humans ; Language Development ; Male ; Mental Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tinnitus

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the lexical tone perception and quality of life of Nurotron cochlear implant users. METHOD: Forty-nine adult cochlear implant users participated in this study. Mandarin tone identification test developed by Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology was used to evaluate the tone perception. Nijmegen cochlear im plantation questionnaire (NCIQ) was administered to quantify the quality of life. RESULT: (1) The average scores of tone perception in quiet was 67.26%. The tone perception rates under quiet condition for all cochlear implant recipients were higher than the opportunity level. (2) The average scores of tone perception under noisy condition was 51.92%. Exc ept for two recipients, the tone perception rates under noise condition for the rest recipients were better than chance. (3) The confusion patterns of tone recognition showed that Tone 3 was the easiest tone to perceive. (4) The postimplant scores for the total , basic sound perception, advanced sound perception, speech pro duction, self-esteem, activity and social interactions of NCIQ were 55.4, 72.4, 54.0, 63.4, 50.7, 47.3 and 44.7, respectively. CONCLUSION The Nurotron cochlear implant users had the ability for lexical tone perception and had an improvement in quality of life after cochlear implantation.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Quality of Life ; Speech Perception ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE To study the audiological and etiological characteristics of infants failed to pass hearing screening. METHODS 126 infants received audiological diagnostic tests,including auditory brainstem response(ABR),40 Hz auditory event related potential(40 Hz AERP),distortion product otoacoustic emissions(DPOAE),tympanometry and acoustic reflex. The degrees and types of the hearing loss,and etiological characteristics were analyzed. RESULTS Among 126 infants (252 ears),61 were diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss(48.41%),48 were conductive hearing loss(38.09%),and 17 were found to have normal ABR thresholds(13.49%). The hearing loss was associated with various factors,including history of infection during pregnancy(21 cases),threatened abortion(9 cases),pregnancy with age at or over 35(6 cases),extension of pregnancy(7 cases),history of systematic diseases(10 cases),history of neonatal jaundice(13 cases),history of asphyxia and hypoxia(18 cases),premature and low birth weight neonates(8 cases),neonatal diseases (8 cases),family history of deafness(5 cases),craniofacial deformity(3 cases),central nervous system disorder(6 cases),and 9 cases were second child. CONCLUSION The infants who failed to pass hearing screening have various etiology characteristics in hearing loss. The infants associated with risk factors were mostly found to have sensorineural hearing loss.

Objective To investigate the effects of the intervention,rehabilitation and speech development of children with severe hearing loss in some rural areas.Methods 61 children,including 35 males and 26 females,were diagnosed as severe hearing loss with ABR and 40 Hz-AERP from June 2004 to July 2008.All the children failed hearing screening or visited the hospital as outpatients.The ages ranged from 2 to 72 months with the average age of 17.59 months.During telephone follow-up,the questionnaire was used to gather the data regarding the usage of hearing aids,hearing and speech rehabilitation,speech development,and communication abilities.Results 33 (54.10%) children were fitted with hearing aids,and 2 (3.28%) received cochlear implants,while 26(42.62 %) neither had hearing aids nor cochlear implants.10 cases with hearing aids also had speech training,whereas 23 children with hearing aids did not receive the training.2 cases with cochlear implants and 2 cases with hearing aids were found to have good speech development and communication ability,while 31 cases with hearing aids had delayed speech development.26 cases without any devices had to rely on sign language for their commumication.Conclusion Children in rural area with severe hearing loss experience greater speech and communication difficulties because many of them have no access to intervention and speech training.The results suggest that it would be very important to increase public awareness and educate parents to have their children wear hearing aids and receive speech training.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the abilities speech perception of post-lingual cochlear implant patients by Mandarin Hearing In Noise Test(MHINT), get the performance-intensity function (P-I function). METHOD: The material was MHINT adults' version, including 12 lists, 20 sentences per list. Twenty-two cochlear implant patients were the subjects, age from 14 to 56. Three adaptive rules were used during the test. Firstly Rule 3 would be done. If subject could finish the test, then Rule 2 and Rule 1 would be used. Got the Reception threshold of sentences and speech recognition score of subjects, then got performance-intensity function (PI function). RESULT: Among those 22 subjects, 5 of them could be tested in all three rules, 3 could be tested in Rule 2 and Rule 3, 7 of them could be tested with Rule 3, and 7 of the CI users could not be tested even with Rule 3. All of the PI functions for CI users are shifted 10 dB or more above the normal PI functions. Most CI users thought that MHINT was hard for them. CONCLUSION When use new adaptive scoring rules for MHINT, most CI users could be tested with the modified HINT scoring rules, although three subjects could not be tested. Compared with normal hearing subjects, all CI users required positive S/N ratios to perform the HINT measures.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants ; Female ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Noise ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Speech Perception ; Young Adult