SOFTWARE FOR AUDITORY PROSTHESIS RESEARCH

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests funds to develop software that will facilitate the design, optimization, and assessment of novel sound processing strategies for implantable auditory prostheses. The software will be designed to interface with existing research platforms that enable diagnostic assessment and control applications. Utilities will be developed that allow users to incorporate custom signal processing and measurement modules into the software framework. Sensimetrics has completed substantial work towards the development of such software and Phase 1 work is directed at translating a current version into a comprehensive software package. Towards this end, the following specific aims must be met: 1) Expand hardware and software support for auditory prosthesis devices. The current software has been designed for use with Cochlear Corporation systems; effort will be directed towards providing support for research devices that control Advanced Bionics Corporation and MedEl Corporation systems. 2) Expand software functionality. Work is outlined to provide interfaces for developing and integrating new processing and analysis modules. 3) Improve software design. Work is outlined towards improving overall design of the software. During the first year of Phase 1, two formative evaluations of the software will be conducted in collaboration with clinical and academic partners. The first will be conducted in collaboration with Children's Hospital Boston to investigate clinically relevant measures of synchrony in bilateral cochlear implant recipients. The second formative evaluation will be conducted in collaboration with the University of Minnesota and will investigate relations between psychophysical and speech reception measures in auditory brainstem and midbrain implant recipients. During the second year, these formative evaluations will be brought into summative evaluations in which the focus will shift away from software development and into clinical evaluation. As this shift occurs, the project's focus will also shift to new academic and clinical partnerships aimed at further development of the software. The planned developments include interfacing the software with a PDA processor under development at the University of Texas at Dallas and extending the software for use in as an auditory training resource. The objective is to produce a flexible and modular framework that can be readily reconfigured for new applications. Phase 1 will deliver a prototype containing the necessary utilities that can be used flexibly for diagnostic assessment and control of auditory prostheses. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This application requests funds to develop software that will facilitate the design, optimization, and assessment of novel sound processing strategies for implantable auditory prostheses. The software will be designed to interface with existing research platforms that enable diagnostic assessment and control applications. This software development project is framed around two formative evaluations directed at synchronization of bilateral cochlear implants and at sound processing design for auditory brainstem and midbrain implants.