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Athens, Ohio 45701
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Li Xu

Li Xu
Professor
xul@ohio.edu

Education

  • PhD, Neuroscience, University of Florida, 1999

Research Interests

  • Speech perception and pitch perception with cochlear implants:
    • studies on speech perception theories and speech-processing strategies to improve performance of cochlear implant users;
    • studies of lexical tone development (e.g., lexical tone perception and production) in prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants;
    • evaluation of speech perception outcomes in hearing-impaired listeners with nonlinear-frequency-compression hearing aids.

Publications

  • Yang, J., Sidhu, J., Totino, G., McKim, S., Xu, L. (2023). Accent rating of noise-vocoded and tone-vocoded foreign-accented speech by native listeners. JASA Express Letters, 3(9), 095204. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0020989. 
  • Yang, J., Barrett, J., Yin, Z., Xu, L. (2023). Perception of foreign-accented vocoded speech by native English listeners. Acta Acustica, 7, 43. https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2023038. 
  • Yang, J., Xu, L. (2023). Acoustic characteristics of sibilant fricatives and affricates in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 153(6), 3501-3512.
  • Yang, J., Xu, L. (2023). Acoustic characteristics of stop consonants in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023), pp. 3859-3863. https://guarant.cz/icphs2023/61.pdf. 
  • Gibson, M., Schlechtweg, M., Ayala, J., Wang, X., Diciaccio, A., Xu, L. (2023). Energetic and informational masking effects on Spanish vowel discrimination. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023), pp. 471-475. https://guarant.cz/icphs2023/876.pdf.
  • Yang, J., Wang, X., Yu, J., Xu, L. (2023). Intelligibility of word-initial obstruent consonants in Mandarin-speaking prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66, 2155–2176. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00268.  
  • Sun, T., Abuhajar, N., Gong, S., Wang, Z., Smith, C. D., Wang, X., Xu, L. & Liu, J. (2022). Individualized conditioning and negative distances for speaker separation. IEEE 2022 21st International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), December 12-14, 2022, Nassau, Bahamas.    
  • Xi, X., Wang, Y., Shi, Y., Gao, R., Li, S., Qiu, X., Wang, Q., Xu, L. (2022). Development and validation of a Mandarin Chinese adaptation of AzBio sentence test (CMnBio). Trends in Hearing, 26, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/23312165221134007.  
  • Xu, L., Yang, J., Hahn, E., Uchanski, R., Davidson, L. (2022). Pitch accuracy of vocal singing in deaf children with bimodal hearing and bilateral cochlear implants. Ear and Hearing, 43,1336–1346.  
  • Yang, J., Wagner, A., Zhang, Y., Xu, L. (2022). Recognition of vocoded speech in English by Mandarin-speaking English-learners. Speech Communication, 136, 63-75.    
  • Qi, S., Chen, X., Yang, J., Wang, X., Tian, X., Huang, H., Rehmann, J., Kuehnel, V., Guan, J., Xu, L. (2021). Effects of adaptive nonlinear frequency compression in hearing aids on speech and sound quality perception. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 15, 722970, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.722970.    
  • Sun, T., Gong, S., Wang, Z., Smith, C. D., Wang, X., Xu, L. & Liu, J. (2021). Boosting the intelligibility of speech enhancement networks through self-supervised representations. IEEE 2021 International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), December 13-15, 2021, Pasadena, CA. 
  • Abuhajar, N., Sun, T., Wang, Z., Gong, S., Smith, C. D., Wang, X., Xu, L., Liu, J. (2021). Network compression and frame stitching for efficient and robust speech enhancement. NAECON 2021 - IEEE National Aerospace and Electronics Conference, August 16 - 19, 2021. Dayton, OH.  
  • Yang, J., Xu, L. (2021). Duration and amplitude of tone production in children with cochlear implants. Chinese Journal of Phonetics, 14, 50-58.
  • Wang, X., & Xu, L. (2021). [Speech perception in noise: Masking and unmasking]. Journal of Otology, 16(2), 109-119.  DOI: 10.1016/j.joto.2020.12.001.
  • Yang, J., Xu, L. (2021). Vowel production in prelingually-deafened Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64(2), 664-682.  https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00469. 
  • Xu, L., Xi, X., Patton, A., Wang, X., Qi, B., Johnson, L. (2021). A cross-language comparison of sentence recognition using American English and Mandarin Chinese HINT and AzBio sentences. Ear and Hearing, 42(2), 405-413.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000938.   
  • Xu, L., Voss, S. C., Yang, J., Wang, X., Lu, Q., Rehmann, J., Kuehnel, V., Qian, J. (2020). Speech perception and sound-quality rating with an adaptive nonlinear frequency compression algorithm in Mandarin-speaking hearing-aid users. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 31, 590–598.  https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1709450.
  • Mao, Y., Chen H., Xie, S., Xu, L. (2020). Acoustic assessment of tone production of prelingually-deafened Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14, 592954.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.592954.   
  • Chen, X., You, Y., Yang, J., Qian, J., Lu, E., Kuehnel, V., Rehmann, J., Liu, B., Xu, L. (2020). Effects of nonlinear frequency compression on Mandarin speech and sound-quality perception in hearing-aid users. International Journal of Audiology, 59(7), 524-533.  
  • Wang, X. and Xu, L. (2020). Mandarin tone perception in multiple-talker babbles and speech-shaped noise. JASA Express Letters, 147(4), EL307-EL313.   
  • Gong, S., Wang, Z., Sun, T., Zhang, Y., Smith, C. D., Xu, L., & Liu, J. (2019). Dilated {FCN:} Listening longer to hear better. The IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA 2019), New Paltz, New York, pp. 249-253.
  • Li, N., Wang, S., Wang, X., Xu, L. (2019). Contributions of lexical tone to Mandarin sentence recognition in hearing-impaired listeners under noisy conditions. JASA Express Letters, 162(2), EL99-EL105.
    Yang, J., Liang, Q., Chen, H., Liu, Y., Xu, L. (2019) Singing proficiency of members of a choir formed by hearing-impaired children with cochlear implants. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62, 1561–1573.
  • Mayle, A., Mou, Z., Bunescu, R., Mirshekarian, S., & Xu, L., Liu, C. (2019) Diagnosing dysarthria with long short-term memory networks. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech 2019), Graz, Austria, accepted.
  • Yang, J. & Xu, L. (2019). Do 3- to 4-year-old Mandarin-English bilinguals separate long-lag VOTs in these two languages? International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) 2019, Melbourne, Australia, accepted.
  • Hou, L, Xu, L. (2018) Role of short-time acoustic temporal fine structure cues in sentence recognition for normal-hearing listeners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 143(2), EL127-EL132.
  • Yang, J., Qian, J., Chen, X., Kuehnel, V., Rehmann, J., von Buol, A., Li, Y., Ren, C., Liu, B., Xu, L. (2018). Effects of nonlinear frequency compression on the acoustic properties and recognition of speech sounds in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 143(3), 1578-1590.
  • Ren, C., Yang, J., Zha, D., Lin, Y., Liu, H., Kong, Y., Liu, S., Xu, L. (2018). Spoken word recognition in noise in Mandarin-speaking pediatric cochlear implant users. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 113, 124-130.
  • Mou, Z., Chen, Z., Yang, J., Xu, L.  (2018). Acoustic properties of vowel production in Mandarin-speaking patients with post-stroke spastic dysarthria. Scientific Reports, 8, 14188. DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-32429-8.
  • Mao, Y., Yang, J., Hahn, E., & Xu, L. (2017).  [Auditory perceptual efficacy of nonlinear frequency compression used in hearing aids: A review]. Journal of Otology, 12, 97-111. doi.org/10.1016/j.joto.2017.06.003
  • Yang, J., Vadlamudi, J., Yin, Z., Lee, C.-Y., Xu, L. (2017). Production of word-initial fricatives of Mandarin Chinese in prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants.  International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19, 153-164.
  • Mao, Y., Xu, L. (2017) Lexical tone recognition in noise in normal-hearing children and prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants.  International Journal of Audiology, 56, S23-S30.
  • Yang, J., Xu, L. (2017). Mandarin compound vowels produced by prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 97, 143-149
  • You, Y., Chen, X., Xu, L., Voss, S. C., Meng, C., Rehmann, J., Guo Q., Kuehnel, V., Qian, J. (2017). The effect of nonlinear frequency compression on speech recognition in noise for hearing-impaired listeners with hearing aids. Journal of Audiology and Speech Pathology, 25(3), 247-251. 
  • Qi, B., Mao, Y., Liu, J., Liu, B., Zhang, L., Xu, L. (2017). Relative contributions of temporal fine structure and envelope cues for lexical tone perception in noise. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 141(5), 3022-3029.
  • You, Y., Chen, X., Xu, L., Meng, C., Guo Q. (2017). The effect of nonlinear frequency compression on sound quality perception by hearing-impaired listeners. Journal of Audiology and Speech Pathology, 25(6), 640 644. 
  • Mao, Y., Chen, Z.M., Xu, L. (2017). The application of neural network analysis on lexical tone rehabilitation of pediatric cochlear implant users. Chinese Journal of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, 52(8), 573-579.
  • Xu, L. (2016) Temporal envelopes in sine-wave speech recognition. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech 2016), San Francisco, CA. pp. 1682-1686.
  • Chen, C., Bunescu, R., Xu, L., Liu, C. (2016) Tone classification in Mandarin Chinese using convolutional neural networks. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech 2016), San Francisco, CA. pp. 2150-2154.
  • Mao, Y., & Xu, L. (2016) Lexical tone recognition in noise in normal-hearing children and prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants. International Journal of Audiology, published online: 26 Aug 2016 | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14992027.2016.1219073.
  • Yang, J., Vadlamudi, J., Yin, Z., Lee, C.-Y., & Xu, L. (2016). Production of word-initial fricatives of Mandarin Chinese in prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, first published online: 4 APR 2016 | DOI: 10.3109/17549507.2016.1143972
  • Wang, S., Dong, R., Liu, D., Zhang, L., Xu, L. (2016). The relative contributions of temporal envelope and fine structure to Mandarin lexical tone perception in auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. In P. van Dijk, D. Başkent, E. Gaudrain, E. de Kleine, A. Wagner, C. Lanting (Eds.) Physiology, Psychoacoustics and Cognition in Normal and Impaired Hearing, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 894, pp241-248, New York: Springer.
  • Wang, S., Dong, R., Liu, D., Wang, Y., Mao, Y., Zhang, H., Zhang, L., & Xu, L. (2016). Perceptual separation of sensorineural hearing loss and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. Laryngoscope, 126, 1240-1245.
  • Yang, J., Brown, E., Fox, R. A., & Xu, L. (2015). Acoustic properties of vowel production of prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 138, 2791-2799.
  • Kim, B. J., Chang, S.-A., Yang, J.,Oh, S.-H. & Xu, L. (2015). Relative contributions of spectral and temporal cues to Korean phoneme recognition. PLoS ONE, 10(7), e0131807.
  • Li, B., Hou, L., Xu, L., Wang, H., Yang, G., Yin, S., & Feng, Y. (2015). The effect of steep high-frequency hearing loss on speech recognition using temporal fine structure in the low frequency regions. Hearing Research, 326, 66-74.
  • Wang, S., Dong, R., Liu, D., Wang, Y., Liu, B., Zhang, L., & Xu, L. (2015). The role of temporal envelope and fine structure in Mandarin lexical tone perception in auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0129710.
  • Zhou, N., & Xu, L. (2014). Melody recognition in dichotic listening with or without frequency mismatch. Ear and Hearing, 35(3), 379-382.
  • Mao, Y., Zhang, M., Nutter, H., Zhang, Y., Zhou, Q., Liu, Q., Wu, W., Xie, D., & Xu, L. (2013) Acoustic properties of vocal singing in prelingually-deafened children with cochlear implants or hearing aids. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 77, 1833-1840.
  • Zhou, N., Huang, J., Chen, X., & Xu, L. (2013). Relationship between tone perception and production in prelingually-deafened children with cochlear implants. Otology & Neurotology, 34(3), 499-506.
  • Liu, Q., Zhou, N., Berger, B., Huang, D., & Xu, L. (2013). Mandarin consonant contrast recognition among children with cochlear implants or hearing aids and normal-hearing children. Otology & Neurotology, 34(3), 471-476.
  • Zhou, N., Xu, L., & Pfingst, B. E. (2012). Characteristics of detection thresholds and maximum comfortable loudness levels as a function of pulse rate in human cochlear implant users. Hearing Research, 284, 25-32.
  • Feng, Y., Xu, L., Zhou, N., Yang, G., & Yin S. (2012). Sine-wave speech recognition in a tonal language. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 131, EL133-EL138.
  • Wang, S., Xu, L., & Mannell, R. (2011) Relative contributions of temporal envelope and fine structure cues to lexical tone recognition in hearing-impaired listeners. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 12, 783-794.
  • Wang, W., Zhou, N., & Xu, L. (2011) Musical pitch and lexical tone perception with cochlear implants. International Journal of Audiology, 50, 270-278.
  • Xu, L., Chen, X., Lu, H., Zhou, N., Wang, S., Liu, Q., Li, Y., Zhao, X., & Han, D. (2011) Tone perception and production in pediatric cochlear implant users. Acta Oto-laryngologica, 131, 395-398.
  • Zhou, N., Xu, L., & Lee, C.-Y. (2010) The effects of frequency-place shift on consonant confusion in cochlear implant simulations. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128, 401-409.
  • Xu, L., Zhou, N., Chen, X., Li, Y., Schultz, H. M., Zhao, X., & Han, D. (2009) Vocal singing by prelingually-deafened children with cochlear implants. Hearing Research, 255, 129-134.
  • Han, D., Liu B., Zhou, N., Chen, X., Kong, Y., Liu, H., Zheng, Y., & Xu, L. (2009) Lexical tone perception with HiResolution and HiResolution 120 sound-processing strategies in pediatric Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant users. Ear and Hearing, 30, 169-177.
  • Xu, L., Zhou, N., Brashears, R., Rife, K. (2008) Relative contributions of spectral and temporal cues for phoneme recognition in patients with sensorineural hearing loss. Journal of Otology, 3, 84-91.
  • Zhou, N., & Xu, L. (2008). Lexical tone recognition with spectrally mismatched envelopes. Hearing Research, 246, 36-43.
  • Zhou, N., Zhang, W., Lee, C.-Y., & Xu, L. (2008) Lexical tone recognition with an artificial neural network. Ear and Hearing, 29, 326-335.
  • Pfingst, B. E., Burkholder-Juhasz, R. A., Zwolan, T. & Xu, L. (2008) Psychophysical assessment of strong and weak stimulation sites in auditory prosthesis electrode arrays. Hearing Research, 242, 172-183.
  • Zhou, N., & Xu, L. (2008). Development and evaluation of methods for assessing tone production skills in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants.Journal of the Acoustical Society of Americ, 123, 1653-1664.
  • Pfingst, B. E., Burkholder-Juhasz, R. A., Xu, L., & Thompson, C. S (2008) Across-site patterns of modulation detection in listeners with cochlear implants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123, 1054-1062.
  • Xu, L. & Zheng, Y. (2007) Spectral and temporal cues for phoneme recognition in noise. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 122, 1758-1764.
  • Han, D., Zhou, N., Li, Y., Chen, X., Zhao, X., & Xu, L. (2007) Tone production of Mandarin-Chinese-speaking children with cochlear implants. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 71, 875-880.
  • Xu, L., Chen, X., Zhou, N., Li, Y., Zhao, X., & Han, D. (2007) Recognition of lexical tone production of children with an artificial neural network. Acta Oto-laryngologica, 127, 365-369.
  • Pfingst, B. E., Xu, L., & Thompson, C. S. (2007) Effects of carrier pulse rate on modulation detection in subjects with cochlear implants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 121, 2236-2246.
  • Xu, L., Zwolan, T. A., Thompson, C. S., & Pfingst, B. E. (2005). Efficacy of a cochlear-implant simultaneous analog stimulation strategy coupled with a monopolar electrode configuration. Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology, 114, 886-893.
  • Pfingst, B. E., & Xu, L. (2005). Psychophysical metrics and speech recognition in cochlear implant users. Audiology & Neurotology, 10, 331-341.
  • Xu, L., Thompson, C. S., & Pfingst, B. E. (2005). Relative contributions of spectral and temporal cues for phoneme recognition. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 117, 3255-3267.
  • Pfingst, B. E., Xu, L., & Thompson, C. S. (2004). Across-site threshold variation in cochlear implants: Relation to speech recognition. Audiology & Neurotology, 9, 341-352.
  • Xu, L., Li, Y., Hao, J., Chen, X., Xue, S. A., & Han, D. (2004). Tone production in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants: A preliminary study. Acta Oto-laryngologica, 124, 363-367.
  • Pfingst, B. E., & Xu, L. (2004). Across-site variation in detection thresholds and maximum comfortable loudness levels for cochlear implants. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 5(1), 11-24.
  • Xu, L., & Pfingst, B. E. (2003). Relative importance of the temporal envelope and fine structure in tone perception. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 114(6), 3024-3027.
  • Franck, K., Xu, L., & Pfingst, B. E. (2003). Effects of stimulus level on speech perception with cochlear prostheses. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 4(1), 49-59.
  • Xu, L., Tsai, Y., & Pfingst, B. E. (2002). Features of stimulation affecting tonal-speech perception: Implications for cochlear prostheses. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 112(1), 247-258.
  • Pfingst, B. E., Franck, K. H., Xu, L., Bauer, E. M., & Zwolan, T. A. (2001). Effects of electrode configuration and place of stimulation on speech perception with cochlear prostheses. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 2(2), 87-103.
  • Xu, L., Furukawa, S., & Middlebrooks, J. C. (2000). Cortical mechanisms for auditory spatial illusion. Acta Oto-laryngologica, 120, 263-266.
  • Xu, L., & Middlebrooks, J. C. (2000). Individual differences in external-ear transfer functions of cats. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107, 1451-1459.
  • Furukawa, S., Xu, L., & Middlebrooks, J. C. (2000). Coding of sound-source locations by ensembles of cortical neurons. Journal of Neuroscience, 20, 1216-1228.
  • Xu, L., Furukawa, S., & Middlebrooks, J. C. (1999). Auditory cortical responses in the cat to sounds that produce spatial illusions. Nature, 399, 688-691.
  • Xu, L., Furukawa, S., & Middlebrooks, J. C. (1998). Sensitivity of sound-source elevation in non-tonotopic auditory cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology, 80, 882-894.
  • Middlebrooks, J. C., Xu, L., Clock, A. E., & Green, D. M. (1998). Codes for sound-source location in non-tonotopic auditory cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology, 80, 863-881.
  • Middlebrooks, J. C., Clock, A. E., Xu, L., & Green, D. M. (1994). A panoramic code for sound location by cortical neurons. Science, 264, 842-844.
  • Xu, L., Probst, R., Harris, F. P., & Roede, J. (1994). Peripheral analysis of frequency in human ears revealed by tone burst evoked otoacoustic emission. Hearing Research, 74, 173-180.
  • Roede, J., Harris, F. P., Probst, R., & Xu, L. (1993). Repeatability of distortion product otoacoustic emissions in normally hearing humans. Audiology, 32(5), 273-281.
  • Harris, F. P., Probst, R., & Xu, L. (1992). Suppression of the 2f1-f2 otoacoustic emission in humans. Hearing Research, 64(1), 133-141.

Awards and Honors

  • 2015-2016 CHSP Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Health Sciences and Professions, Ohio University