Speech understanding in babble noise and syllabic-range temporal processing in aging

2013 ◽  
Vol 133 (5) ◽  
pp. 3388-3388
Author(s):  
Pierre Divenyi
1984 ◽  
Vol 76 (S1) ◽  
pp. S48-S48
Author(s):  
Ingeborg J. Hochmair‐Desoyer ◽  
Helmut K. Stiglbrunner ◽  
Ernst‐Ludwig Wallenberg

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 233121651988668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zilong Xie ◽  
Casey R. Gaskins ◽  
Maureen J. Shader ◽  
Sandra Gordon-Salant ◽  
Samira Anderson ◽  
...  

Aging may limit speech understanding outcomes in cochlear-implant (CI) users. Here, we examined age-related declines in auditory temporal processing as a potential mechanism that underlies speech understanding deficits associated with aging in CI users. Auditory temporal processing was assessed with a categorization task for the words dish and ditch (i.e., identify each token as the word dish or ditch) on a continuum of speech tokens with varying silence duration (0 to 60 ms) prior to the final fricative. In Experiments 1 and 2, younger CI (YCI), middle-aged CI (MCI), and older CI (OCI) users participated in the categorization task across a range of presentation levels (25 to 85 dB). Relative to YCI, OCI required longer silence durations to identify ditch and exhibited reduced ability to distinguish the words dish and ditch (shallower slopes in the categorization function). Critically, we observed age-related performance differences only at higher presentation levels. This contrasted with findings from normal-hearing listeners in Experiment 3 that demonstrated age-related performance differences independent of presentation level. In summary, aging in CI users appears to degrade the ability to utilize brief temporal cues in word identification, particularly at high levels. Age-specific CI programming may potentially improve clinical outcomes for speech understanding performance by older CI listeners.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Darestani Farahani ◽  
Jan Wouters ◽  
Astrid van Wieringen

Speech understanding problems are highly prevalent in the aging population, even when hearing sensitivity is clinically normal. These difficulties are attributed to changes in central temporal processing with age and can potentially be captured by age-related changes in neural generators. The aim of this study is to investigate age-related changes in a wide range of neural generators during temporal processing in middle-aged and older persons with normal audiometric thresholds. A minimum-norm imaging technique is employed to reconstruct cortical and subcortical neural generators of temporal processing for different acoustic modulations. The results indicate that for relatively slow modulations (<50 Hz), the response strength of neural sources is higher in older adults than in younger ones, while the phase-locking does not change. For faster modulations (80 Hz), both the response strength and the phase-locking of neural sources are reduced in older adults compared to younger ones. These age-related changes in temporal envelope processing of slow and fast acoustic modulations are possibly due to loss of functional inhibition, which is accompanied by aging. Both cortical (primary and non-primary) and subcortical neural generators demonstrate similar age-related changes in response strength and phase-locking. Hemispheric asymmetry is also altered in older adults compared to younger ones. Alterations depend on the modulation frequency and side of stimulation. The current findings at source level could have important implications for the understanding of age-related changes in auditory temporal processing and for developing advanced rehabilitation strategies to address speech understanding difficulties in the aging population.


2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (04) ◽  
pp. 264-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen S. Helfer ◽  
Megan Vargo

Purpose: This study was designed to examine speech understanding ability and temporal processing in middle-aged women with normal or near-normal pure-tone thresholds. Research Design: Speech understanding, temporal processing ability, and self-assessed hearing were measured in groups of younger and middle-aged females. Study Sample: Participants were younger and middle-aged females (n = 12 per group) with normal hearing through 4000 Hz bilaterally. Subjects were drawn from nonclinical populations. Data Collection and Analysis: Speech understanding was measured in the presence of steady-state noise and competing speech, with and without perceived spatial separation of the target speech and masker. The Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) test (Musiek et al, 2005) was used to assess temporal resolution ability. In addition, subjects completed a questionnaire with several items from the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (Gatehouse and Noble, 2004) to gauge their subjective ability to understand speech in complex listening situations. Data were analyzed via repeated-measures ANOVA and Pearson r correlations. Results: Results showed that the performance of the middle-aged subjects was significantly poorer than that of the younger participants in the presence of a spatially coincident speech masker. Although performance in this listening condition was unrelated to pure-tone thresholds, it was strongly correlated with scores on the GIN test. Speech understanding performance in the presence of a steady-state masker was related to high-frequency pure-tone thresholds. Conclusions: These results suggest that some middle-aged women with little or no pure-tone hearing loss experience listening difficulty in complex environments. Results also suggest a strong relationship between temporal processing and speech understanding in certain competing speech situations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Blankenship ◽  
Jareen Meinzen-Derr ◽  
Fawen Zhang

ABSTRACT Objective: Speech recognition performance among cochlear implant (CI) recipients is highly variable and is influenced by their ability to perceive rapid changes within the acoustic signal (i.e., temporal resolution). A behavioral gap detection test is commonly used to assess temporal processing however it requires active participation, and therefore may be infeasible for young children and individuals with disabilities. Alternatively, cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) can be elicited by a silent gap embedded in a longer duration stimulus and have been used as an objective measure of temporal resolution. Only a few studies have examined within-frequency gap detection (identical pre- and post-gap frequency), most of which were conducted with normal hearing (NH) individuals and did not include speech perception. The purpose of the study is to evaluate behavioral and electrophysiological measures of within-frequency temporal processing and speech perception in NH and CI recipients. Design: Eleven post-lingually deafened adult CI recipients (n = 15 ears; mean age = 50.4 yrs.) and eleven age- and gender-matched NH individuals (n = 15 ears; mean age = 49.0 yrs.) were recruited. Speech perception was assessed with the CNC word test, AzBio sentence test, and BKB Speech-in-Noise test. Within-frequency (2 kHz pre- and post-gap tone) behavioral gap detection thresholds (GDT) were measured using an adaptive, two-alternative, forced-choice paradigm. Within-frequency CAEPs were measured using four gap duration conditions based on the individual's behavioral GDT including a supra-threshold (GDTx3), threshold (GDT), sub-threshold (GDT/3), and reference (no gap) condition. Mixed effect models examined group differences in speech perception, behavioral GDTs, and CAEP amplitude and latency. Correlation analyses examined the relationship between the CAEP response, behavioral measures of speech perception and temporal processing, and demographic factors. Results: CI recipients had significantly poorer speech perception scores with no significant differences in behavioral within-frequency GDTs compared to NH participants. CI recipients had poorer CAEP waveform morphology, smaller N1, larger P2 amplitude, and increased P1 latency compared to NH participants. Additionally, older participants displayed smaller N1-P2 amplitude compared to younger participants. Bivariate group correlation analysis showed that individuals with poorer within-frequency GDTs displayed significantly poorer performance on the AzBio sentences in noise and BKB Speech-in-Noise test. Multivariate canonical correlation analysis showed a significant relationship between the within-frequency CAEP amplitude and latency and behavioral measures of speech perception and temporal processing. Conclusions: CI recipients had poorer speech understanding in quiet and noise yet similar behavioral GDTs compared to NH participants. NH participants showed the anticipated trend of increased N1-P2 amplitude as CAEP gap duration increased. However, CAEP amplitude and latency remained relatively stable across gap duration conditions for CI recipients. Instead, significant group and age effects for CAEP peak amplitude and latency were found that can likely be attributed to differences in cortical neuron density, adaptation, and recovery between the groups. Lastly correlation analysis indicates that individuals with poorer temporal processing are likely to have adequate speech perception in quiet but worse speech understanding in noise.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurora J. Weaver ◽  
Jeffrey J. DiGiovanni ◽  
Dennis T. Ries
Keyword(s):  

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