WO2023000796A1

WO2023000796A1 - Acoustic measurement method and apparatus for binaural information integration function of patient with cognitive disorders

Info

Publication number: WO2023000796A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/093705
Authority: WO
Inventors: 唐毅; 李量; 王长明; 王治斌
Original assignee: 首都医科大学宣武医院; 北京大学
Priority date: 2021-07-19
Filing date: 2022-05-18
Publication date: 2023-01-26
Also published as: CN113274000A; CN113274000B

Abstract

An acoustic measurement method and apparatus for a binaural information integration function of a patient with cognitive disorders. The acoustic measurement method comprises the following steps: S1: generating a plurality of broadband noise segments and a plurality of irrelevant segments, which have a specific sound intensity, wherein the binaural correlation of the irrelevant segments is 0, and the binaural correlation of the broadband noise segments is 1; S2: instructing the execution of a task of detecting the irrelevant segments, so as to detect the appearance of the irrelevant segments in the broadband noise segments; S3: playing the broadband noise segments and the irrelevant segments by means of binaural earphones, wherein the irrelevant segments are inserted between adjacent noise segments; S4: detecting a feedback signal; S5: repeating steps S2-S4, repeating the measurement a predetermined number of times, and recording each measurement result; S6: according to the measurement result, calculating a correct rate of the detection of the irrelevant segments; and S7: according to the correct rate of the detection of the irrelevant segments, determining a damaged condition of binaural information processing of a patient.

Description

Acoustic measurement method and device for binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment

technical field

The invention relates to an acoustic measurement method for the binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment, and also relates to a corresponding acoustic measurement device, which belongs to the technical field of auditory perception measurement.

Background technique

At present, the commonly used measurement paradigms of central auditory processing disorder include binaural dichotic hearing and noise speech perception measurement. Patients with cognitive impairment often suffer from decreased executive ability and poor task coordination, which affect the accuracy of the measurement results of auditory perception and sensory impairment. Commonly used clinical central auditory processing test paradigms (such as dichotic hearing, noise speech perception measurement, etc.) are affected by the patient's executive ability and task cooperation. Therefore, when measurements are abnormal, it is difficult to interpret whether the abnormal results are due to the central auditory processing disorder itself or to cognitive decline.

In the Chinese invention patent with the patent number ZL 201710325414.5, a Parkinson's disease detection device based on collaborative optimization of voice mixed information features is disclosed, including: a signal collector, a processor and a result output module; the signal collector: For obtaining the voice information of the diagnostic object; the processor: including a feature extraction module for extracting voice features and a pre-trained classifier, through which it is judged whether the diagnostic object belongs to a Parkinson's disease patient; the result Output module: used to output the judgment result of the classifier. The diagnosis process of the Parkinson's disease detection device adopts a classifier, which is trained and tested through a large amount of data, and has high precision and is easy to use.

Relevant studies have shown that the binaural information processing measured by the binaural integration paradigm is an auditory perception process, and its measurement is not affected by experience or executive function. The binaural integration paradigm measures aging-induced decline in binaural information processing. Therefore, for the accelerated aging of the human brain caused by cognitive impairment diseases, the binaural integration paradigm has the potential to measure the impairment of auditory perception caused by the disease.

Contents of the invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an acoustic measurement method for binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment.

Another technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an acoustic measurement device for the binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions:

According to the first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, there is provided an acoustic measurement method for binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment, comprising the following steps:

S1: Generate a plurality of broadband noise segments and a plurality of irrelevant segments with specific sound intensity, the binaural correlation of the irrelevant segments is 0, and the binaural correlation of the broadband noise is 1;

S2: Instruct to execute the task of detecting irrelevant segments, so as to detect the occurrence of the irrelevant segments from the broadband noise segments;

S3: Play the broadband noise segment and the irrelevant segment on binaural headphones, and insert the irrelevant segment between adjacent noise segments;

S4: A feedback signal is detected;

S5: Repeat steps S2 to S4, repeat the measurement for a predetermined number of times, and record the results of each measurement;

S6: Calculate the accuracy rate of irrelevant segment detection according to the measurement result;

S7: According to the accuracy rate of the detection of the irrelevant segments, judge the impairment status of the patient's binaural information processing.

Preferably, in one measurement, the irrelevant segment occurs at the time midpoint of the broadband noise segment, and there is a fixed duration interval between two measurements.

Wherein preferably, the accuracy rate of the detection of the irrelevant segment is the number of correct tasks detected by the irrelevant segment/the number of preset tasks.

Preferably, the correct detection of the irrelevant segment refers to recognizing the occurrence of the irrelevant segment within a predetermined time range and giving feedback when the irrelevant segment is played by binaural earphones.

Wherein preferably, in the step S7, if the correct rate of the detection of the irrelevant segment is lower than the preset standard value, it is judged that the binaural information integration function of the patient is impaired.

Wherein preferably, the length of the irrelevant segment is greater than a minimum threshold of an irrelevant segment that can be detected.

Preferably, the sound clips used in each measurement are regenerated.

Preferably, in each measurement, the time delay of the binaural channel is the same and the length of the irrelevant segments is the same.

Preferably, in the step S4, the feedback time corresponding to the feedback signal is also recorded, and whether the patient cooperates with the examination is judged according to the feedback time, so as to end or change the measurement task in time.

According to the second aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an acoustic measurement device for binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment, including a processing unit, an input and output unit connected to the processing unit, and binaural earphones, the processing unit is used for Acoustic measurement method to perform binaural information integration function in cognitively impaired patients as described above.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has wide adaptability, high accuracy of auditory perception sensory measurement, and can be used for acoustic measurement of various cognitive function impairments caused by nervous system diseases. The corresponding acoustic measurement device is easy to operate and has loose requirements on the measurement environment.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the schematic flow chart of the acoustic measurement method of binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment provided by the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the schematic diagram of the BIC fragment played simultaneously in the first embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of BIC segments not played at the same time in the second embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

The technical content of the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

The inventor has verified the acoustic measurement of binaural information integration ability through a large amount of measurement data, especially relying on the integrity of auditory perception and sensory ability, without being affected by experience or executive function. Thus, the present invention provides a new sensory measurement paradigm for auditory perception. From the perspective of paradigm design, the detected binaural information integration ability is highly dependent on the integration and processing of sound signals at the sensory level of the central auditory system, and is not affected by executive function or other advanced cognitive functions; in addition, the inventors have confirmed through a large number of experimental data Thus, the paradigm's acoustic measurement of auditory perception perception was not affected by the patient's executive capacity. Furthermore, adopting this paradigm can improve the accuracy of auditory perception measurement in patients with neurological diseases such as cognitive impairment and mental illness.

On the basis of the above-mentioned auditory perception sensory measurement paradigm, the present invention firstly provides an acoustic measurement method for the binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment, which uses broadband noise to insert binaural irrelevant segments (BIC, Break in Interaural Correlation ; binaural correlation=0), form the sound signal environment of direct sound and reflected sound of the sound source, and measure the ability of patients with cognitive impairment to identify and preserve the two sounds in the sound signal environment, and then locate the sound source. The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3 .

The auditory integration paradigm can measure two kinds of binaural processing abilities that are functionally related in the process of auditory information processing: the ability to detect and preserve the temporal fine structure of sound signals in both ears (in broadband noise). The temporal fine structure of sound signal is a fundamental physical characteristic of sound that is related to sound frequency. Broadband noise is a sound segment without speech and musical content: on the one hand, it can reduce the participation of participants' experience or cognitive factors in the measurement process; Measuring the responsiveness of auditory sensory automatic processing.

The lossless maintenance of language information in noise and the location of sound sources depend on the automatic preservation, comparison and identification of the time fine structure of binaural sound signals at the perceptual level of the central auditory nervous system. Finally, the listener perceives the sound source at the conscious level, and through The Executive/Attention function switches attention between different sound sources.

The binaural integration paradigm provided by the embodiment of the present invention is briefly introduced as follows: After the left and right ears play the same broadband noise (binaural correlation=1) for a period of time, add another pair of uncorrelated BIC segments (BIC segments played by binaural Correlation between = 0). When starting to play broadband noise with binaural correlation=1 (that is, the sound played by both ears is the same), the listener will feel a central, fused sound image of the head; when playing to binaural correlation= 0, the listener will feel the separated sound images located on both sides of the left and right ears; when the BIC clip ends and the broadband noise with binaural correlation = 1 is played again, the listener will again feel a sound image in the center of the head. , integrated sound and image. Subjects with normal hearing can detect rapid changes in the correlation of sound segments in the left and right ears; BIC segments make the listener subjectively perceive rapid changes in the sound image (fusion-separation-fusion) or similar to plosives. It is worth noting that the content and loudness of the sound are not changed by the introduction of BIC fragments.

The acoustic measurement method of binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment provided by the present invention, as shown in Figure 1, comprises the following steps:

S1: Gaussian broadband noise with a specific sound intensity and a BIC segment are generated, the binaural correlation of the BIC segment is 0, and the binaural correlation of the broadband noise is 1.

Use the "randn()" function of MATLAB (the MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA, USA) to generate 2000ms of Gaussian broadband noise (0–10kHz) (including 30ms rising and falling edges); the sampling rate of the function is 48kHz, The amplitude quantization is 16bit. The acoustic stimulus was converted from digital to analog by a Creative Sound Blaster PCI128 system (Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS, Creative Technology Ltd, Singapore), and the analog signal was played through headphones (HD 265 linear, Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co.KG, Germany). The sound intensity of the output sound was corrected with a sound pressure meter (AUDit and System 824, Larson Davis, Depew, NY, USA), and the sound intensity was fixed at 65 dB SPL. The binaural correlation is 0 for BIC clips and 1 for broadband noise clips. The broadband noise segment of binaural noise has the same center frequency as the BIC segment and has the same energy. Here, the BIC fragments can have different lengths, but preferably have the same length.

S2: The patient is instructed to perform the task of detecting BIC segments to detect the presence of BIC segments from broadband noise segments.

Through the acoustic measurement device with binaural information integration function for patients with cognitive impairment provided by the present invention, for example, presenting instructions on a display, the patient is allowed to perform the task of detecting BIC segments. Here, the instruction can use images, text or sound to make the patient understand the content of the task to be performed.

The task of detecting BIC fragments is to measure the shortest duration of BIC fragments that patients can detect during the process of playing sound fragments in the order of "broadband noise-BIC fragment-broadband noise" in both ears. Performing the task of detecting BIC fragments can reflect the ability of patients to detect BIC fragments. In this embodiment, the "choose one" task is used to determine that the patient can detect the BIC fragment. For example, in the first task, the ears were played in the order of "broadband noise clip-BIC clip-broadband noise clip", and only the broadband noise clip was played in the second task. In the second task, if the patient can correctly perceive and feedback which of the two segments has the BIC segment, the result is correct; if the patient cannot give correct feedback, it is an error.

S3: Play broadband noise clips and BIC clips of preset length.

The broadband noise sound (analog sound) and the BIC sound (analog sound) generated in the S1 step, i.e. the broadband noise segment and the BIC segment for the specific duration of the measurement, these two sound segments (both are collectively referred to as: sound segment), In a quiet environment, play with the play time difference ITD of different ears. In a single measurement, the BIC segment and the broadband noise appear sequentially in time as "broadband noise-BIC segment-broadband noise" (or in other words, the BIC segment is spaced between multiple broadband noise segments). For example, as shown in Figure 2, a BIC segment is spaced between two broadband noise segments. However, those of ordinary skill in the art can understand that the manner shown in Figure 2 does not constitute a limitation to the present invention, and it can also be "broadband noise-the first BIC segment-the second BIC segment-broadband noise" or "the first broadband noise -BIC segment-first broadband noise-second broadband noise-BIC segment" and other forms. More preferably, in a measurement, the BIC segment appears at the time midpoint of the broadband noise (that is, the binaural correlation changes according to 1-0-1), and there is a fixed duration interval between each two measurements ITD.

Broadband noise (ie, non-BIC clips) was played in both ears, and the left and right ears sounded identical. In the BIC segment, the sound segment of the left or right ear is an uncorrelated segment with the same acoustic parameters, so that the binaural correlation changes from 1 to 0. After the BIC segment is played, broadband noise is played again, so that the binaural correlation becomes 1 again. Note that BIC segments do not cause energy changes in the sound. The so-called binaural correlation is 0 for the BIC segment and 1 for broadband noise.

In each measurement, the sound clips of the left and right ears can be played simultaneously (ITD=0) or not (for example, the earphone of the left ear is played earlier than the earphone of the right ear for a certain period of time, ITD≠0). The so-called simultaneous playback means that the sound clips played by the left and right ears start at the same time and are the same at each time point (as shown in Figure 2). As shown in Figure 3, the so-called non-simultaneous playback refers to the sound clip played by one earphone, which is preset time ITD earlier than the sound clip played by the other earphone (that is, after a specific ITD, the other earphone starts to play), but the two The content played by earphones (or earphones) is exactly the same as the sound content under the condition of ITD=0, except that there is a time delay. This delay operation can be implemented by hardware, or by using software (such as MATLAB software) to add a binaural time delay (that is, a binaural time difference) between the left ear channel and the right ear channel. The binaural sound playback time The delay of will cause a delay of the same time to the sound of all frequencies, thus introducing different phase differences to the components of different frequencies.

Since earphones are used to play sound clips, only a quiet environment is required, and complex equipment is not required.

As shown in Figure 2, the patient's head is in the middle of the picture; the audio picture above the earphone is a sound clip played by the earphone (for example, the right earphone); the audio picture below the earphone is another earphone (for example, the left earphone). Headphones) of sound clips played. As shown, two sound clips are presented in each earphone. Among them, in the sound segment played in the right earphone, A1 represents the first broadband noise segment; B1 represents the first BIC segment, C1 represents the second broadband noise segment, the total length of the sound segment is 2000ms, and the BIC segment is 200ms, where BIC The segment plays between 900ms and 1100ms. Similarly, for the sound segment played in the left earphone, A2 represents the third broadband noise segment; B2 represents the second BIC segment, C2 represents the fourth broadband noise segment, the total length of the sound segment is 2000ms, and the BIC segment is 200ms. The time difference ITD between the sound clips played by the left-ear earphone and the right-ear earphone is 0ms, that is, the left-ear earphone and the right-ear earphone play at the same time. Each acoustic measurement interval, that is, after the "broadband noise segment-BIC segment-broadband noise segment" is played in sequence, the interval is 1000ms, and then the "broadband noise segment-BIC segment-broadband noise segment" is played in sequence.

In this embodiment, different BIC segment lengths can be selected for each measurement, for example, gradually extending or reducing the BIC segment length. In this embodiment, the sound clips (A1, B1, C1) played in the earphone of the right ear are not completely the same as the sound clips (A2, B2, C2) played in the earphone of the left ear, that is, A1 is equal to A2 (both ears Correlation = 1), B1 is different from B2 (binaural correlation = 0), C1 is equal to C2 (binaural correlation = 1). Moreover, preferably, in each measurement, the sound clips of both ears are regenerated into new noise clips, so as to prevent the memory effect from interfering with the accuracy of the measurement. However, the broadband noise segment has the same center frequency and sound intensity as the BIC segment. In order to avoid the interference of other factors, in this embodiment, it is more preferable that the only difference between the BIC part and the non-BIC part of the binaural noise segment is that the sound image experienced by the patient is different, but this does not constitute a limitation to the present invention , is just the best choice.

Preferably, the length of the BIC segment selected for each measurement is fixed, and the patient is allowed to complete a preset number of BIC detection tasks (such as 20 times or other preset times), and the patient's correctness in each BIC detection task is calculated. Rate. The setting of this paradigm can judge the stability of the patient's binaural information integration ability, and then reflect the degree of damage to the stability of neural activity caused by the disease state. According to a large number of preliminary tests, it can be found that the binaural information integration ability of patients with cognitive impairment is unstable, and this instability is further aggravated as the disease progresses. Therefore, this measurement method of the present invention has the following advantages: first, the above-mentioned measurement method can reflect the disease behavior characteristics and neural basis (that is, the instability of neural activity) of individuals with cognitive impairment; in addition, the fixed BIC segment length and preset The number of measurements can optimize the measurement steps, reduce the number of measurements, and improve the evaluation efficiency of the binaural information integration function in the crowd.

S4: The feedback signal is detected, and the length of the BIC segment played, the data break point and the feedback time are recorded.

When the patient performs the task and hears the separated sound in the two earphones according to the instructions, the feedback information is sent through the input module. The acoustic measurement device with binaural information integration function for patients with cognitive impairment provided by the present invention detects the feedback information and records it as the feedback time T when the patient performs the task.

Here, the feedback time is the time from playing the sound to receiving the patient's response (for example, pressing the button), which includes the time of the whole process of playing-perceiving the BIC-pressing the button. The reaction time is approximately equal to the feedback time; the reaction time requires a complex measurement method and must be measured in a professional institution, so the feedback time is regarded as the reaction time in the present invention.

S5: Repeat steps S2-S4, repeat the measurement for a predetermined number of times, and record the results of each measurement.

In multiple measurements, a fixed-length BIC segment is used, for example, in each measurement, the length of the BIC segment is 200 ms. In multiple measurements, record whether the patient can detect the fixed-length BIC segment, which is used to calculate the correct rate of the patient's BIC detection, so as to reflect the stability of the patient's binaural information integration and neural activity.

As an alternative, the time length of the BIC segment can be increased or decreased in each measurement, as a different acoustic measurement benchmark for different cognitive impairment disease populations to complete the BIC detection task, avoiding the "ceiling effect" and "floor effect", and finally improving The accuracy of the measurement. In each measurement, the shortest period of time that the patient can detect the BIC and the time point of each feedback are recorded.

The sound clips (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2) used in each measurement are regenerated to prevent memory effects from interfering with the accuracy of the measurement.

Furthermore, the total duration of the binaural noise for each measurement remains unchanged (2000ms), while the BIC segment changes dynamically in each measurement according to the principle of "three down and up", that is, if the judgment is correct three times in a row, the length of the BIC segment is reduced , an error in judgment, increase the length of the BIC fragment. The initial length of the BIC segment is 200ms, and the initial change step is 32ms. In the same direction, the break point (data point) changes at a rate of 0.5 times until the step is 1ms. For example, when first measured, the BIC segment was 200 ms long. If the BIC detection is correct in the first three trials, the length of the BIC segment becomes 168ms (step length 32ms), and if it is still correct in the next three trials, the BIC fragment length in the seventh trial is 152ms (step length 16ms); if the judgment is wrong, the next time The BIC segment length was increased to 168ms. At this time, 152ms is called a turning point or inflection point. And so on until the end after 10 turning points. A complete acoustic measurement includes 10 breakpoints, and the average value of the last 6 breakpoints is taken as the BIC length threshold of the BIC fragment obtained from this measurement. Also, the patient's feedback time (T1, T2...) is recorded for each measurement.

More preferably, the length of the BIC segment is fixed, the preset number of measurements is completed, and the degree of binaural information integration damage is reflected by the correct rate of BIC detection. The above viewpoint can be supported by a large amount of experimental data in the early stage. Moreover, these experiments show that under the premise of fixing the length of the BIC segment, 20 measurements using the method of the present invention can reflect the impairment of the binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment.

It is worth noting that there is a strong statistical correlation between the auditory perception measurement and the patient's cognitive function score, indicating that this paradigm provides a rapid measurement tool that indirectly reflects the cognitive function of patients with cognitive impairment through auditory perception . Compared with the BIC threshold measurement in the prior art to evaluate binaural information integration ability, the BIC detection accuracy paradigm of the present invention greatly reduces the number of measurements. For example, using the BIC detection accuracy paradigm, it needs to be measured 20 times; according to the previous data, the BIC threshold value needs to be measured 27 to 80 times according to the rules, in order to realize the evaluation of the binaural information integration ability of the same patient.

On the other hand, in multiple measurements, the calculation of the BIC threshold in the prior art relies on the accuracy and reliability of each measurement result, and patients with cognitive impairment have neurological instability. Thus, acoustic measurements of BIC thresholds are affected by neurological instability in cognitively impaired patients. Compared with it, the BIC detection accuracy paradigm of the present invention can still measure this impairment feature of the neurological function of patients with cognitive impairment.

S6: Calculate the correct rate of the patient's detection of the BIC segment according to the measurement result.

By measuring the correct rate of detecting BIC fragments in patients with different ITD difficulties, the impairment of binaural information processing in patients is further exposed. The lower the correct rate, the more severe the hearing impairment of the patient.

Correct BIC detection means that when a noise segment with a BIC segment is played by binaural headphones, the patient recognizes the appearance of the BIC segment within a predetermined time range and gives correct feedback. It can be seen that the two prerequisites for correct BIC detection are: 1) the patient's binaural information processing ability is sufficient to identify BIC fragments; 2) the patient is sufficient to cooperate with the feedback (feedback within the predetermined time range, too fast or too slow will affect the accuracy of the measurement results. reliability). What needs to be emphasized here is that the present invention is different from the prior art in that the length of the BIC fragment can be significantly greater than the minimum threshold of the BIC fragment (BIC fragment duration threshold) at which the BIC fragment can be detected by the patient, such as the BIC that can be recognized by normal elderly people. The segment minimum threshold is about 8.5ms, and the BIC segment length set by the present invention can be 200ms or even longer, which is several times or even tens of times of the BIC segment minimum threshold, and there is no limit in theory (but in order to save measurement time in practical applications, still not too long).

The calculation of the correct rate of BIC detection is the correct number of BIC detection tasks/the preset number of tasks. For example, if the correct number of BIC detection tasks of a patient is 18, and the preset number of times is 20, the correct rate is 18/20=90%. It can take the average value of multiple detections to further improve the stability of the results of the correct rate of BIC detection. If the correct rate of final BIC segment detection is lower than the preset standard value, it can be judged that the binaural information integration function of the patient is impaired.

Use the feedback time (T1, T2...) to judge whether the patient cooperates with the examination, so as to end or change the measurement task in time. For example, if the feedback time of each test is significantly lower than the population level (for example, 1-3 s), it indicates that the patient did not cooperate well to complete the test. In the actual environment, the patient may show impatience and randomly press the keys. At this time, the patient's acoustic measurement results are unreliable, and the measurement task should be terminated or changed in time.

S7: According to the correct rate of the patient's detection of the BIC segment, the impairment of binaural information processing of the patient is judged.

By comparing with the BIC detection accuracy threshold of healthy people, it can be judged whether the binaural information integration ability is impaired. By comparing with the baseline value of the correct rate of individual BIC detection, it is used to monitor whether the impairment of binaural information integration ability continues to progress. For example, the preliminary test data show that when the correct rate of BIC detection is 88%, it can distinguish Alzheimer's disease dementia and amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and its diagnostic accuracy (the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) The 95% confidence intervals were 0.84-1.00 and 0.76-0.94, respectively. The data results suggest that the correct rate of BIC detection can reflect the impairment of binaural information integration in patients with cognitive impairment.

Of note, impairment of binaural information integration enables the distinction of cognitively impaired disease from healthy controls. In addition, previous experimental data also suggested that the correct rate of BIC detection was strongly correlated with cognitive function scores. Therefore, the BIC accuracy paradigm can not only reflect the impairment of auditory perception in patients with cognitive impairment, but also reflect the degree of loss of cognitive function through auditory impairment.

In the first embodiment, two earphones (or binaural earphones) are played simultaneously in each measurement. In this embodiment, the two earphones do not play at the same time, for example, the left ear plays ahead of the right ear. As shown in FIG. 3 , ITD is a different value.

It should be noted that the total length of broadband noise, the frequency range of broadband noise, the replacement of broadband noise by narrowband noise, the binaural correlation parameters of broadband noise, and the BIC segment parameters (binaural correlation parameters, duration parameters, starting point in the whole noise Initial parameters), ITD parameters, and the leading order of left and right ear playback can all be set in advance according to needs, and are not limited to the values exemplified in this article.

In this embodiment, the acoustic measurement method in the first embodiment is simplified to reflect the stability of the patient's binaural information processing neural activity. Under the condition of different values of ITD, a fixed-length BIC segment (eg, 200ms) is played multiple times (eg, 20 times, each time is a regenerated noise segment) in one measurement, and the BIC segment detected by the patient is calculated correct rate. This kind of task can reflect the degree of decline in the accuracy of neural activity time in patients with cognitive impairment, and use the correct rate of BIC detection obtained by patients to receive multiple measurements to reflect the impairment of binaural processing information.

It can be further simplified by fixing the ITD and the length of the BIC segment, and calculating the correct rate of the patient's detection of the BIC segment through multiple measurements.

Specifically, in the method of the first embodiment, when repeating steps S1 to S4 to perform repeated measurements for a predetermined number of times, in each measurement, the length of the BIC segment is the same, and the ITD is also the same (for example, 0 ms , 2ms, etc.).

The inventors have verified the change in the temporal precision of neural activity and the change in the stability of neural activity reflected in this task through a large number of experimental measurements. This task can simply and effectively reflect the ability of the auditory center to detect the fine structure of the ears. The present invention only needs about 20 times of acoustic measurement to obtain the result, while the aforementioned prior art requires about 27 to 80 times of measurement to obtain the detection result. Because the prior art is aimed at the auditory measurement of normal people, each acoustic measurement result is credible and has little deviation. However, the present invention is aimed at patients with cognitive impairment. The neural activity of this group is unstable, and a single measurement cannot reflect the instability of this neural activity; in addition, after multiple measurements, the performance is abnormal, which will lead to serious inaccuracies in the measurement results. stable, invalidating this measurement. Therefore, the BIC detection accuracy paradigm provided by the present invention can directly measure the instability of the neural activity of the cognitively impaired population; in addition, under the premise of ensuring the accuracy of the measurement results, reducing the number of measurements can reflect this auditory perception. and further reduce the impact of the behavioral impairment characteristics of the patient group on the measurement results, so as to ensure the reliability of the measurement results of binaural information integration dysfunction.

In addition, the present invention calculates the correct rate of the patient detecting the BIC segment, and judges whether the patient's hearing is impaired according to the correct rate. In the prior art, the length threshold of the BIC segment is calculated, and the auditory perception ability of a normal person is judged according to the length threshold of the BIC segment. Since the detection of the length threshold of the BIC segment has high requirements for accurate reporting of a single measurement, it requires stable task performance of the patient, while the neural activity of the cognitively impaired patient itself is unstable. In addition, repeated measurement and long-term measurement will aggravate this When the state is unstable, the accuracy of the ability to detect the length threshold of the BIC segment will decrease, and ultimately affect the acoustic measurement of hearing ability. Therefore, the present invention adjusts the judgment criterion from the length threshold of the BIC segment (prior art) to the correct rate of BIC segment detection, which can improve the accuracy of the measurement results of binaural information integration dysfunction of cognitively impaired people.

In summary, the acoustic measurement method for the binaural information integration function of cognitively impaired patients provided by the present invention is more accurate, simpler and more effective for auditory perception measurement (binaural information integration), and can be widely used in clinical practice. in practice. In addition, the present invention has loose requirements on hardware, and can use a computer (or mobile phone) to play broadband noise (digitized design and processing) through the left and right earphones in quiet scenes such as homes or communities through mobile phone APP and earphones, and the inspection process can be completed . Therefore, the measurement method is simple and has loose requirements on the measurement environment, which is more in line with the actual needs of clinical environments or population screening.

The binaural integration paradigm provided by the present invention can be applied to patients with cognitive impairment, thereby realizing early diagnosis of such diseases and providing potential treatment ideas.

The present invention also provides an acoustic measuring device for binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment, including: a processing unit, an input and output unit connected to the processing unit, and binaural earphones. Among them, the processing unit can be a computer, a mobile phone, a tablet computer or even a special machine for acoustic measurement that integrates binaural information for patients with cognitive impairment. The processing unit is used for storing the computer program for implementing the acoustic measurement method of the binaural information integration function of the cognitively impaired patient in the aforementioned first embodiment, second embodiment or third embodiment. The input and output unit is used to receive feedback information from the patient or issue instructions to the patient to perform tasks. It can be a touch screen of a mobile phone, a mouse, a button or even a game console handle. Binaural earphones are used to play sound clips, which can be wireless earphones or wired earphones, or even sound transmitters through bone conduction, etc.

As an alternative, the aforementioned processing unit may download or call a computer program from the background server to perform the acoustic measurement of the binaural information integration function of cognitively impaired patients in the aforementioned first embodiment, second embodiment or third embodiment method.

The acoustic measurement method and device for the binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment provided by the present invention are described in detail above. For those of ordinary skill in the art, any obvious changes made to it without departing from the essence of the present invention will constitute an infringement of the patent right of the present invention and will bear corresponding legal responsibilities.

Claims

An acoustic measurement device for binaural information integration function of patients with cognitive impairment, comprising a processing unit, an input and output unit connected to the processing unit and binaural earphones, characterized in that the processing unit is used to perform the following steps:

S1: Generate a plurality of broadband noise segments and a plurality of irrelevant segments with specific sound intensity, the binaural correlation of the irrelevant segments is 0, and the binaural correlation of the broadband noise is 1;

S2: Instruct to execute the task of detecting irrelevant segments, so as to detect the occurrence of the irrelevant segments from the broadband noise segments;

S3: Play the broadband noise segment and the irrelevant segment on binaural headphones, and insert the irrelevant segment between adjacent noise segments;

S4: A feedback signal is detected;

S5: Repeat steps S2 to S4, repeat the measurement for a predetermined number of times, and record the results of each measurement;

S6: Calculate the accuracy rate of irrelevant segment detection according to the measurement result;

S7: According to the accuracy rate of the detection of the irrelevant segments, judge the impairment status of the patient's binaural information processing.
The acoustic measuring device according to claim 1, characterized in that:

In a measurement, the irrelevant segment occurs at the time midpoint of the broadband noise segment, and there is a fixed duration interval between two measurements.
The acoustic measuring device according to claim 2, characterized in that:

The accuracy rate of the irrelevant segment detection is the correct number of tasks/preset task times for the irrelevant segment detection.
The acoustic measuring device according to claim 1, characterized in that:

The correct detection of the irrelevant segment refers to recognizing the occurrence of the irrelevant segment within a predetermined time range and giving feedback when the irrelevant segment is played by the earphones.
The acoustic measuring device according to claim 4, characterized in that:

In the step S7, if the correct rate of the detection of the irrelevant segments is lower than the preset standard value, it is judged that the binaural information integration function of the patient is impaired.
The acoustic measuring device according to claim 5, characterized in that:

The length of the irrelevant segment is greater than a minimum threshold of irrelevant segments that can be detected.
The acoustic measuring device according to claim 5, characterized in that:

The sound clips used in each measurement are regenerated.
The acoustic measuring device according to any one of claims 1-7, characterized in that:

In each measurement, the binaural channel time delays are the same and the uncorrelated segments are of the same length.
The acoustic measuring device according to any one of claims 1-7, characterized in that:

In the step S4, the feedback time corresponding to the feedback signal is also recorded, and whether the patient cooperates with the examination is judged according to the feedback time, so as to end or change the measurement task in time.