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Biomedical subjects

J Bench

Publications and source records attributed to J Bench.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Summarizing pure tone audiograms: an extension of Bamford et al. (1980).

This paper extends the findings of a previous report (Bamford et al., 1980) which described a principal components analysis of pure tone audiometric data. Using a similar approach to the analysis of a large number of pure tone audiograms, the present study confirms the previous work. By far the greater part of the the audiogram variance could be ascribed to two components, one associated with the degree of, and the other with the slope of, the hearing loss. Further, it is shown that the proportions of the variance attributed to the two components change in a meaningful way according to the type of hearing loss: middle-ear, inner-ear, and mixed.

Adolescent

Pure tone audiograms from hearing-impaired children. II. Predicting speech-hearing from the audiogram.

Pure tone audiograms and speech audiograms using sentence lists were obtained from 150 8-16-year-old children with pure tone hearing losses ranging from mild to severe. Most of the hearing impairments were cochlear in origin. Three 'speech-hearing' measures were selected from the speech audiograms, and it was shown that the correlation coefficients between two of these and the pure tone hearing thresholds were roughly in agreement with figures from previous studies of adults = 0.882 for Speech Reception Threshold and 0.533 for Discrimination Score. In addition, a correlation of 0.329 was found between the slope of the speech audiogram and pure tone thresholds. The strength of different summaries of the pure tone audiogram for predicting the various speech-hearing measures were compared. It was found that although the traditional summaries did quite well, their relative strengths varied according to the speech-hearing measure under consideration. The best summary predictors for all the speech-hearing measures were, either alone or in combination, two indices which have been proposed recently by the present authors, and which measure both the degree of pure tone hearing loss and the slope of the pure tone audiogram. However, the gains in predictive strength achieved with these indices were small.

Adolescent

Auditory deprivation--an intrinsic or extrinsic problem? Some comments on Kyle (1978).

The relevance of animal work to early auditory deprivation, as discussed by Kyle (1978), is questioned. It is argued that auditory experience from birth, or even much later, is not necessarily required for subsequent hearing for spoken language. It is also questioned whether concern for intrinsic difficulties, such as possible cortical damage resulting from auditory deprivation, is appropriate. A more productive approach may be to pay more attention to the extrinsic aspect--the linguistically principled rehabilitation of the hearing-impaired child.

Adolescent

The BKB (Bamford-Kowal-Bench) sentence lists for partially-hearing children.

Linguistic guidelines for the design of sentences for speech audiometry with children are described, and new lists of test sentences which are based on such guidelines--the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Sentence Lists for Children--are introduced. Audiometric data relating to the use of the new lists are presented and discussed.

Adolescent

A comparison of live and videorecord viewing of infant behavior under sound stimulation. III. Six-month-old babies.

Ten clinically normal 6-month-old infants were presented with a series of sound stimuli while their behavior was simultaneously videotaperecorded and assessed live by 2 sound-masked observers. Two weeks later the same observers assessed the behavior from the videorecords. In both situations observers were permitted to see the babies for 13 sec at each trial. The first 5 sec formed a prestimulus observation period and the following 8 sec possibly contained a sound stimulus. Between trials the observers were allowed 20 sec in which to not (1) prestimulus activity, (2) confidence in response, and (3) facial, digit, and limb movements and "wholistic"impressions (e.g., "stilling"). The agreement between the live and video situations was modest for prestimulus activity and confidence in response, and fair to good for movement item. The outcome was rather similar to that of our earlier work on neonates and 6-week infants, although it did suggest a small loss of information with the videorecording of 6-month infants.

Acoustic Stimulation

Studies in infant behavioural audiometry. I. Neonates.

The behaviour of 93 clinically normal neonates was video-recorded while they were presented with sequences of sound stimuli which varied in sound pressure level, bandwidth and rise time and which included two voice signals and a no-sound (control) trial. Video records were made both for the whole body aspect and for a 3 1/2 X "close-up" of the head. Later, the video records were shown to 6 observers who were allowed to see the babies for 10 sec at each trial. The first 5 sec was a pre-stimulus observation period, and the second 5 sec usually contained a sound stimulus. Between the trials, the observers were given 20 sec in which to record (1) pre-stimulus activity, (2) confidence in response, and (3) movement details (data for (3) not reported here). For the whole-body aspect, observers were allowed to see (1) the whole body, (2) the head, arms and trunk, (3) the arms, trunk and legs, (4) the head only, (5) the arms and trunk only, or (6) the legs only, during different viewing sessions. For the head aspect, they could see (7) the whole head, (8) the head above the upper lip, or (9) the head below the upper lip. This segmentation was achieved by masking parts of the television screen with shutters. The response confidence ratings were analysed using aspects of signal detection theory to show differences amongst various body segments (p less than 0.001), sound pressure levels (p less than 0.001), bandwidths (p less than 0.001), and rise times (p less than 0.01). There were significant interactions between sound pressure level X bandwidth (p less than 0.001), sound pressure level X rise time (p less than 0.01), and bandwidth X rise time (p less than 0.001). A 90-dB broad-spectrum noiseband was by far the most effective stimulus. The response to different sound stimuli was differentially affected by pre-stimulus activity state. The results are discussed in relation to recent work on clinical screening techniques.

Acoustic Stimulation

A comparison of live and videorecord viewing of infant behavior under sound stimulation. II. Six-week-old infants.

Ten clinically normal 6-week old infants were presented with a series of sound stimuli while their behavior was assessed live by 2 sound-masked observers and simultaneously videorecorded. Two weeks later the same observers assessed the behavior from the videorecords. In both situations, observers were permitted to see the babies for 10 sec at each trial. The first 5 sec was a prestimulus observation period, and the second 5 sec might have contained a sound stimulus. Between trials the observers were allowed 20 sec in which to note (1) prestimulus activity, (2) confidence in response, and (3) facial, digit, and limb movements, and "wholistic" impressions (e.g., "stilling"). The agreement between the live and video situations was fair for prestimulus activity, modest for confidence in response, and fair to good for movement items. The use of videorecorded material for 6-week old infants generally caused rather small losses of relevant information and apparently will not overly distort the findings of experimental or clinical work. This outcome was rather similar to that of our earlier study of neonates.

Acoustic Stimulation