Cochlear hearing loss : physiological, psychological and technical issues: 2nd

1. Physiological aspects of cochlear hearing loss. Linear and nonlinear systems -- Structure and function of the outer and middle ear -- Structure and function of the normal cochlea -- Neural responses in the normal auditory nerve -- Types of hearing loss -- Physiology of the damaged cochlea -- 2. Absolute thresholds. Measures of absolute threshold -- Descriptions of the severity of hearing loss -- Causes of hearing loss due to cochlear damage -- Perceptual consequences of elevated absolute thresholds -- 3. Masking, frequency selectivity and basilar membrane nonlinearity. The measurement of frequency selectivity using masking -- Estimating frequency selectivity from masking experiments -- Characteristics of the auditory filter in normal hearing -- Masking patterns and excitation patterns -- Non-simultaneous masking -- The audibility of partials in complex tones -- Effects of cochlear damage on frequency selectivity in simultaneous masking -- The use of masking to diagnose dead regions -- Effects of cochlear damage on forward masking and suppression -- Effects of cochlear hearing loss on BM input-output functions -- Perceptual consequences of reduced frequency selectivity, dead regions, loss of suppression and steeper BM input-output functions -- 4. Loudness perception and intensity resolution. Loudness perception for normally hearing people -- Effects of cochlear hearing loss on loudness perception -- A model of normal loudness perception -- A model of loudness perception applied to cochlear hearing loss -- Effects of bandwidth on loudness -- Effects of cochlear hearing loss on intensity resolution -- Perceptual consequences of altered loudness perception -- 5. Temporal resolution and temporal integration. Modelling within-channel temporal resolution in normal hearing -- Temporal resolution in normal hearing -- Temporal resolution in people with cochlear damage -- Temporal integration at threshold -- Temporal integration at suprathreshold levels -- Perceptual consequences of abnormal temporal processing in people with cochlear hearing loss -- 6. Pitch perception and frequency discrimination. Theories of pitch perception -- The perception of the pitch of pure tones by normally hearing people -- Frequency discrimination of pure tones by people with cochlear hearing loss -- The perception of pure-tone pitch for frequencies falling in a dead region -- Pitch anomalies in the perception of pure tones -- The pitch perception of complex tones by normally hearing people -- Theories of pitch perception for complex tones -- Pitch perception of complex tones by people with cochlear hearing loss -- Perceptual consequences of altered frequency discrimination and pitch perception -- 7. Spatial hearing and advantages of binaural hearing. The localization of sinusoids -- The localization of complex sounds -- The cone of confusion, head movements, and pinna cues -- General conclusions on sound localization -- The precedence effect -- Binaural masking level differences (MLDs) -- Head-shadow effects -- Release from informational masking -- Diotic advantages -- Perceptual consequences of abnormal binaural and spatial hearing in people with cochlear damage -- 8. Speech perception. The magnitude of the noise problem -- The role of audibility -- Influence of dead regions on speech perception -- Correlation between psychoacoustic abilities and speech perception -- Assessing the effects of frequency selectivity on vowel and consonant perception -- Influence of loss of sensitivity to temporal fine structure -- The use of simulations to assess the importance of psychoacoustic factors in speech perception -- 9. Hearing aids. Linear amplification -- Compression amplification -- Some general problems with hearing aids -- Methods for improving the speech-to-noise ratio -- Transposition aids for severe and profound hearing loss -- Cochlear implants.