Work

Vibrotactile signals can aid recognition of spectrally degraded speech signals

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The potential utility of providing low-frequency portions of speech signals through vibrotactile stimulation as an aid to speech recognition by cochlear implant recipients was examined. Sixty-five young adults with normal hearing heard four-channel noise-vocoded sentences high-pass filtered above 0.25 kHz as well as those noise-vocoded sentences combined with the original signal filtered below 0.25 kHz, presented through either auditory stimulation or vibrotactile stimulation. Improved speech recognition was observed for both groups, but effects were smaller for participants in the vibrotactile group than for those in the auditory group. Future research efforts should explore ways of enhancing the vibrotactile signal.

Source: JASA Express Letters

DOI: 10.1121/10.0042196

Authors: Susan Nittrouer, D. H. Whalen, Wei-Rong Chen

Institutions: University of Florida, City University of New York, University of Macau

Language: English

Topic: Tactile and Sensory Interactions

Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: University of Florida