Part of the Institute for Chinese Studies "Understanding China -- Its Roots and New Frontiers" Lecture Series
"Lexical Tone Development in Children with Cochlear Implants"
Abstract:
Cochlear implant (CI) is a medical device that is surgically implanted to the inner ears of profoundly-deaf individuals to help them to regain the sensation of sound through electric stimulations of the auditory nerve. While CI is successful in providing excellent speech recognition, poor representation of pitch information in CIs hinders pitch perception and affects perception of lexical tones in cochlear implant users who speak tonal languages. In the present series of studies, lexical tone perception and production were assessed. Factors that contribute to performance variation were also examined.
Biography:
Li Xu is an associate professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Ohio University. He earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience from University of Florida. His research focuses on speech, lexical tone, pitch, and music perception and production in cochlear implant users. For more information, see http://www.ohio.edu/people/xul.
Co-sponsors: Department of Speech and Hearing Science, Department of Linguistics, and Graduate Association of Chinese Linguistics (GACL)