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Results for “Speech Reception Threshold Test”

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PubMed2005

Effect of slow-acting wide dynamic range compression on measures of intelligibility and ratings of speech quality in simulated-loss listeners.

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to determine the extent to which 4-channel, slow-acting wide dynamic range amplitude compression (WDRC) can counteract the perceptual effects of reduced auditory dynamic range and (b) to examine the relation between objective measures of speech intelligibility and categorical ratings of speech quality for sentences processed with slow-acting WDRC. Multiband expansion was used to simulate the effects of elevated thresholds and loudness recruitment in normal hearing listeners. While some previous studies have shown that WDRC can improve both speech intelligibility and quality, others have found no benefit. The current experiment shows that moderate amounts of compression can provide a small but significant improvement in speech intelligibility, relative to linear amplification, for simulated-loss listeners with small dynamic ranges (i.e., flat, moderate hearing loss). This benefit was found for speech at conversational levels, both in quiet and in a background of babble. Simulated-loss listeners with large dynamic ranges (i.e., sloping, mild-to-moderate hearing loss) did not show any improvement. Comparison of speech intelligibility scores and subjective ratings of intelligibility showed that listeners with simulated hearing loss could accurately judge the overall intelligibility of speech. However, in all listeners, ratings of pleasantness decreased as the compression ratio increased. These findings suggest that subjective measures of speech quality should be used in conjunction with either objective or subjective measures of speech intelligibility to ensure that participant-selected hearing aid parameters optimize both comfort and intelligibility.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2007

Evaluation of the benefit for cochlear implantees of two assistive directional microphone systems in an artificial diffuse noise situation.

OBJECTIVE: People with cochlear implants have severe problems with speech understanding in noisy surroundings. This study evaluates and quantifies the effect of two assistive directional microphone systems compared to the standard headpiece microphone on speech perception in quiet surroundings and in background noise, in a laboratory setting developed to reflect a situation whereby the listener is disturbed by a noise with a mainly diffuse character due to many sources in a reverberant room. DESIGN: Thirteen postlingually deafened patients, implanted in the Leiden University Medical Centre with the Clarion CII device, participated in the study. An experimental set-up with 8 uncorrelated steady-state noise sources was used to test speech perception on monosyllabic words. Each subject was tested with a standard headpiece microphone, and the two assistive directional microphones, TX3 Handymic by Phonak and the Linkit array microphone by Etymotic Research. Testing was done in quiet at a level of 65 dB SPL and with decreasing signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) down to -15 dB. RESULTS: Using the assistive directional microphones, speech recognition in background noise improved substantially and was not affected in quiet. At an SNR of 0 dB, the average CVC scores improved from 45% for the headpiece microphone to 67% and 62% for the TX3 Handymic and the Linkit respectively. Compared to the headpiece, the Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) improved by 8.2 dB SNR and 5.9 dB SNR for the TX3 Handymic and the Linkit respectively. The gain in SRT for TX3 Handymic and Linkit was neither correlated to the SRT score with headpiece nor the duration of CI-use. CONCLUSION: The speech recognition test in background noise showed a clear benefit from the assistive directional microphones for cochlear implantees compared to the standard microphone. In a noisy environment, the significant benefit from these assistive device microphones may allow understanding of speech with greater ease.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Speech and language development in cognitively delayed children with cochlear implants.

OBJECTIVE: The primary goals of this investigation were to examine the speech and language development of deaf children with cochlear implants and mild cognitive delay and to compare their gains with those of children with cochlear implants who do not have this additional impairment. DESIGN: We retrospectively examined the speech and language development of 69 children with pre-lingual deafness. The experimental group consisted of 19 children with cognitive delays and no other disabilities (mean age at implantation = 38 months). The control group consisted of 50 children who did not have cognitive delays or any other identified disability. The control group was stratified by primary communication mode: half used total communication (mean age at implantation = 32 months) and the other half used oral communication (mean age at implantation = 26 months). Children were tested on a variety of standard speech and language measures and one test of auditory skill development at 6-month intervals. RESULTS: The results from each test were collapsed from blocks of two consecutive 6-month intervals to calculate group mean scores before implantation and at 1-year intervals after implantation. The children with cognitive delays and those without such delays demonstrated significant improvement in their speech and language skills over time on every test administered. Children with cognitive delays had significantly lower scores than typically developing children on two of the three measures of receptive and expressive language and had significantly slower rates of auditory-only sentence recognition development. Finally, there were no significant group differences in auditory skill development based on parental reports or in auditory-only or multimodal word recognition. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that deaf children with mild cognitive impairments benefit from cochlear implantation. Specifically, improvements are evident in their ability to perceive speech and in their reception and use of language. However, it may be reduced relative to their typically developing peers with cochlear implants, particularly in domains that require higher level skills, such as sentence recognition and receptive and expressive language. These findings suggest that children with mild cognitive deficits be considered for cochlear implantation with less trepidation than has been the case in the past. Although their speech and language gains may be tempered by their cognitive abilities, these limitations do not appear to preclude benefit from cochlear implant stimulation, as assessed by traditional measures of speech and language development.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed2001

Spatial unmasking of nearby speech sources in a simulated anechoic environment.

Spatial unmasking of speech has traditionally been studied with target and masker at the same, relatively large distance. The present study investigated spatial unmasking for configurations in which the simulated sources varied in azimuth and could be either near or far from the head. Target sentences and speech-shaped noise maskers were simulated over headphones using head-related transfer functions derived from a spherical-head model. Speech reception thresholds were measured adaptively, varying target level while keeping the masker level constant at the "better" ear. Results demonstrate that small positional changes can result in very large changes in speech intelligibility when sources are near the listener as a result of large changes in the overall level of the stimuli reaching the ears. In addition, the difference in the target-to-masker ratios at the two ears can be substantially larger for nearby sources than for relatively distant sources. Predictions from an existing model of binaural speech intelligibility are in good agreement with results from all conditions comparable to those that have been tested previously. However, small but important deviations between the measured and predicted results are observed for other spatial configurations, suggesting that current theories do not accurately account for speech intelligibility for some of the novel spatial configurations tested.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Assessment of central auditory processing in a group of workers exposed to solvents.

CONCLUSION: Despite having normal hearing thresholds and speech recognition thresholds, results for central auditory tests were abnormal in a group of workers exposed to solvents. Workers exposed to solvents may have difficulties in everyday listening situations that are not related to a decrement in hearing thresholds. A central auditory processing disorder may underlie these difficulties. OBJECTIVE: To study central auditory processing abilities in a group of workers occupationally exposed to a mix of organic solvents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten workers exposed to a mix of organic solvents and 10 matched non-exposed workers were studied. The test battery comprised pure-tone audiometry, tympanometry, acoustic reflex measurement, acoustic reflex decay, dichotic digit, pitch pattern sequence, masking level difference, filtered speech, random gap detection and hearing-in-noise tests. RESULTS: All the workers presented normal hearing thresholds and no signs of middle ear abnormalities. Workers exposed to solvents had lower results in comparison with the control group and previously reported normative data, in the majority of the tests.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Efficient adaptive procedures for threshold and concurrent slope estimates for psychophysics and speech intelligibility tests.

The minimum standard deviations achievable for concurrent estimates of thresholds and psychometric function slopes as well as the optimal target values for adaptive procedures are calculated as functions of stimulus level and track length on the basis of the binomial theory. The optimum pair of targets for a concurrent estimate is found at the correct response probabilities p1 = 0.19 and p2 = 0.81 for the logistic psychometric function. An adaptive procedure that converges at these optimal targets is introduced and tested with Monte Carlo simulations. The efficiency increases rapidly when each subject's response consists of more than one statistically independent Bernoulli trial. Sentence intelligibility tests provide more than one Bernoulli trial per sentence when each word is scored separately. The number of within-sentence trials can be quantified by the j factor [Boothroyd and Nittrouer, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 84, 101-114 (1988)]. The adaptive procedure was evaluated with 10 normal-hearing and 11 hearing-impaired listeners using two German sentence tests that differ in j factors. The expected advantage of the sentence test with the higher j factor was not observed, possibly due to training effects. Hence, the number of sentences required for a reliable speech reception threshold (approximately 1 dB standard deviation) concurrently with a slope estimate (approximately 20%-30% relative standard deviation) is at least N = 30 if word scoring for short, meaningful sentences (j approximately 2) is performed.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

An analysis of the results of myringoplasty in children.

An analysis of the results of 100 temporalis fascia underlay myringoplasties in children between the ages of 2-17 years is presented. The follow-up period in this retrospective review was from 6 to 24 months. There was no statistically significant correlation between the age of patient, a history of previous ear surgery, previous general anaesthesia, previous adenotonsillar surgery, preoperative otorrhoea, impaired eustachian tubal function, individual surgeon performing the surgery, size of perforation or operative technique and the outcome of the surgery with respect to graft take rate. The overall graft take rate was 75.3% of the 93 patients that returned for follow-up. The seniority of the surgeon and by implication the degree of operative experience of the surgeon is found to be significantly correlated with the graft take rate (P < 0.05). On audiometric testing, the mean pre-operative air conduction threshold improved significantly (P < 0.0001) from 32.0 dBHL (S.D. 11.22) to 20.18 dBHL (S.D. 15.54) while the speech reception threshold improved from a mean of 25.34 dBHL (S.D. 12.88) to 18.79 (S.D. 15.5) (P < 0.0005). Although not statistically significant, patients under the age of 8 years were found to have a low graft take rate (56%) when compared to the mean. The audiometric results in this age group were comparable to the rest of the group. The findings in this study suggest that myringoplasty is a beneficial procedure in the pediatric population in the hands of a skilled and experienced surgeon. The learning curve seen in the surgeons in this study suggests that suitable cases for junior surgeons should be carefully selected.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Characterization of acoustic reflex latency in normal-hearing subjects.

Acoustic reflex latency (ARL) has been suggested as an indicator in otoneurological diagnosis. However, limited normative data are available. Conflicting evidence exists regarding the effect of stimulus parameters such as frequency on ARL. In addition, there has been little research investigating the effects of ipsilateral and contralateral stimulation on ARL. In view of these problems, ARL was measured in 30 normal-hearing subjects using 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 Hz tones, low-pass noise, high-pass noise, broadband noise and clicks as activating stimuli. Six parameters of ARL: 10%-on latency, 90%-on latency, 10%-off latency, 90%-off latency, rise time and fall time, were recorded using computerized equipment and analyzed in correlation to the activating frequency and intensity. This study indicated that 500 Hz, 1000 Hz tones, and band noise were more effective in eliciting measurable ARL, whereas 4000 Hz tone and click produced a low percentage of measurable ARL. ARL was shown to increase as the stimulus frequency increased and stimulus intensity decreased. No statistically significant differences were found between the ipsilateral ARL and contralateral ARL.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗

PubMed1999

Nonsense-syllable recognition in noise using monaural and binaural listening strategies.

Using a binaurally equipped KEMAR manikin, syllables of the CUNY Nonsense Syllable Test were recorded in sound field at 0-degree azimuth against a background of cafeteria noise at 270-degrees azimuth, at several signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios. The combination of inputs recorded at each ear was delivered to ten normal-hearing (NH) and eight sensorineurally hearing impaired (HI) listeners through insert ear phones to produce five experimental listening conditions: (1) binaural head shadow (HS), in which ear presentation was analogous to the original stimulus recording, (2) binaural favorable (BF), in which the noise-shadowed (right-ear) recording was presented to both ears, (3) monaural favorable (MF), in which the noise-shadowed recording was presented only to the right ear, (4) monoaural unfavorable (MU), in which the noise-unshadowed (left ear) recording was presented only to the left ear, and (5) simulated monoaural aided (SMA), in which the noise-shadowed recording was presented to the right ear and the noise-unshadowed recording--attenuated by 20 dB relative to the HS condition--was presented to the left ear. All main effects (subject type, listening condition, and S/N ratio) were statistically significant. Normal listeners showed 3.3- and 3.2-dB advantages, respectively, due to head-shadow and binaural squelch, over hearing-impaired listeners. Some hearing-impaired listeners performed better under the SMA or BF conditions than under the HS condition. Potential digital signal processing strategies designed to optimize speech understanding under binaurally aided listening conditions are discussed.

Audiometry, Pure-Tone↗

PubMed2006

Dichotic word recognition in young and older adults.

Dichotic word recognition was evaluated in free-recall, directed-attention right, and directed-attention left response conditions. All participants were right-handed and included a group of young adults with normal hearing and two groups of older adults with sensorineural hearing loss. Dichotic word recognition performance was best for young adults and decreased for each older group. A right-ear advantage (REA) was observed for all groups. REAs observed in the older groups were larger than those for the young adults, resulting from a greater deficit in dichotic word recognition performance for words presented to the left ear. A subset of older adults exhibited few to no responses (< or = 3/100) for the left ear for all response conditions, which may relate to a compromise in auditory processing. The results support an age-related disadvantage in recognition performance for dichotic stimuli presented to the left ear not entirely accounted for by differences in hearing sensitivity between subject groups.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

A test to measure subjective and objective speech intelligibility.

Measurement of hearing aid outcome is particularly difficult because there are numerous dimensions to consider (e.g., performance, satisfaction, benefit). Often there are discrepancies between scores in these dimensions. It is difficult to reconcile these discrepancies because the materials and formats used to measure each dimension are so very different. We report data obtained with an outcome measure that examines both objective and subjective dimensions with the same test format and materials and gives results in the same unit of measurement (signal-to-noise ratio). Two variables are measured: a "performance" speech reception threshold and a "perceptual" speech reception threshold. The signal-to-noise ratio difference between these is computed to determine the perceptual-performance discrepancy (PPDIS). The results showed that, on average, 48 percent of the variance in subjective ratings of a hearing aid could be explained by a combination of the performance speech reception threshold and the PPDIS. These findings suggest that the measure is potentially a valuable clinical tool.

Aged↗

PubMed1995

Use of test-retest measures to evaluate performance stability in adults with cochlear implants.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to evaluate performance stability with test-retest measures of electrical thresholds, electrical maximum acceptable loudness levels, sound-field thresholds, and audition-only speech tests. The hypothesis was that the standard error of measurement differs from one individual to another for each test, and therefore test-retest measures need to be obtained from each subject. DESIGN: Test-retest data were obtained in three sets. For the first two sets, data were obtained over 4 successive weeks to determine day-to-day variability. The third set was obtained on 2 successive days, 2 to 10 months later at each subject's annual evaluation. The seven subjects were recipients of the Nucleus cochlear implant and used the Mini Speech Processor at least one year. They were selected because they were available for research testing. RESULTS: The ranges of electrical thresholds and maximum acceptable loudness levels obtained from each subject during the first two sets were substantially larger on some electrodes than on others. Between set 1 and set 2 for each subject, there were significant differences between thresholds and between maximum acceptable loudness levels on some electrodes. For thresholds as well as maximum acceptable loudness levels, the standard error of measurement across the three sets and 10 electrodes differed among subjects. The group standard error of measurement for sound-field thresholds was small (2 dB). The group standard error of measurement for the NU-6 word test scored according to phonemes (2.75%) was less than half that for the vowel (6.06%) and consonant (5.67%) tests. The standard error of measurement for each speech test differed among subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The standard error of measurement for thresholds as well as maximum acceptable loudness levels varies among electrodes in the same subject and among subjects across electrodes. The standard error of measurement also varies among speech tests for the group as well as among subjects for each speech test. There is little variation in test-retest measures of sound-field thresholds among subjects. These results suggest the clinical importance of obtaining test-retest measures for evaluating the stability of electrical thresholds, electrical maximum acceptable loudness levels, and speech tests.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Supplementary formulas and tables for calculating and interconverting speech recognition scores in transformed arcsine units.

Formulas that convert speech recognition scores, in percent or proportions, into units based on the arcsine transform have been described previously. This report reviews that work and presents various supplementary equations and tables for calculating and interconverting the proposed units. The relative merits of these data and their application to scores from closed-set tests are also discussed.

Humans↗

PubMed2004

Temporal resolution and speech recognition ability of patients with retrocochlear auditory dysfunction.

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of temporal resolution measured by gap detection tasks on the speech recognition ability of patients with retrocochlear auditory dysfunction. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The gap detection thresholds (GDTs) for dichotic stimuli were measured for 23 patients with retrocochlear auditory dysfunction confirmed by abnormal auditory brainstem responses the relationship between GDTs and maximum speech recognition scores (max. SRSs) in quiet was examined. In gap detection testing, narrow-band noises of the five center frequencies of 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 kHz were used as leading and trailing markers. Each of these two marker sounds was presented to the opposite ear at 20 dBSL with various gap durations between them. RESULTS: Abnormal GDTs were observed at one or more test frequencies in 17 of 23 patients. In 12 patients, abnormal GDTs were found at four or five test frequencies. These 12 patients included 4 patients with poor max. SRS less than 30%. However, no tendency was found for max. SRSs to be poorer as abnormal GDTs were observed for more test frequencies. CONCLUSION: Temporal resolution measured by gap detection for dichotic stimuli was frequently reduced in patients with retrocochlear auditory dysfunction, and this reduction appeared to spread over a wide frequency range when speech recognition had markedly deteriorated. However, it also appeared that reduced temporal resolution for dichotic stimuli might not necessarily imply poor speech recognition in quiet.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1987

Partial and total reconstruction of old radical cavities. Long-term results.

Partial reconstruction of old radical cavities was performed in 118 ears with well-epithelialized mastoid cavities but with problematic tympanic cavities. Total reconstruction was performed in 145 ears with chronically discharging cavities. Partial reconstruction included reconstruction of only the tympanic cavity, whereas in total reconstructions both the tympanic cavity and the external auditory canal were rebuilt, in most cases with obliteration of the mastoid cavity. The patients were reexamined several times during observation periods of up to 17 1/2 years (mean, 8 1/2 years) and the long-term results were analyzed. The primary functional results were good but deteriorated with increasing observation time. In 79% of the patients, the ears remained dry following total radical reconstruction.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗

PubMed2000

[Otoacoustic emissions, auditory evoked potentials, pure tone thresholds and speech intelligibility in cases of auditory neuropathy].

The combined findings of "normal evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAE) and absent or markedly disturbed auditory evoked potentials from the brainstem and/or cortex" has been named auditory neuropathy in the English literature. The pure tone thresholds in these patients range from mild to severe loss. The loss of speech comprehension is out of proportion in comparison to the pure tone threshold elevation. This combination of findings suggests that cochlear function and in particular outer hair cell function, is normal in these patients but also suggests that the inner hair cell / VIII nerve functional unit is abnormal. Disruption in neural synchrony has previously been postulated as a reasonable explanation for the absent auditory brainstem response while otoacoustic emissions are preserved. Because the long-latency auditory evoked potentials, not having the stringent synchrony requirements of the ABR, may also be missing, the term synchrony - disruption may be somewhat misleading. The literature about auditory neuropathy is reviewed here: We now know that a set of salient features distinguishes these patients from the majority of patients with sensorineural hearing loss or other described syndromes. The symptoms defining auditory neuropathy are mild, moderate or severe elevation of auditory thresholds to pure tone stimuli by air and bone conduction, absent to severely abnormal ABRs to high level stimuli, present otoacoustic emissions (that do not suppress with contralateral noise), word recognition ability poorer than expected from the pure tone hearing loss configuration (in cases with mild to moderate hearing threshold elevation) and absent acoustic reflexes to both ipsilateral and contralateral tones. The entire set of findings, consistently seen in these patients, supports the importance of the crosscheck principle in diagnostic evaluation especially in children with delayed and/or impaired language acquisition. It is of ponderous importance that this disorder is not being confused with sensory hearing loss.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Hearing after surgery for cholesteatoma using various techniques.

The late results in 740 patients with cholesteatoma subjected to one-stage canal wall down mastoidectomy (262 patients), modified canal wall up mastoidectomy (324 patients), and tympanoplasty without mastoidectomy (154 patients) were analyzed with regard to hearing and the condition of the drum. Mean observation time was 9.3 years, range 3-21 years. Postoperative hearing (air bone gap and pure tone average) and as hearing at the last evaluation was significantly better in the canal wall up group, than in the canal wall down group, but also the preoperative hearing was better in the canal wall up group. The postoperative hearing was best in the group with tympanoplasty only without mastoidectomy. It is concluded that no single method is optimal in all cases of cholesteatoma and that cholesteatoma surgery should be individualized.

Acoustic Impedance Tests↗

PubMed2001

Effects of aging and gender on interhemispheric function.

The ability of the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate with one another via the corpus callosum is important for a wide variety of sensory, motor, and cognitive functions, many of them communication related. Anatomical evidence suggests that aging results in structural changes in the corpus callosum and that the course over time of age-related changes in corpus callosum structure may depend on the gender of the individual. Further, it has been hypothesized that age- and gender-related changes in corpus callosum structure may result in concomitant decreased performance on tasks that are reliant on interhemispheric integrity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of age and gender on auditory behavioral and visuomotor temporal indices of interhemispheric function across the life span of the normal adult. Results from 120 consistently right-handed adults from age 20 to 75 years revealed that interhemispheric integrity, as measured by dichotic listening, auditory temporal patterning, and visuomotor interhemispheric transfer time tasks, decreases relatively early in the adult life span (i.e., between the ages of 40 and 55 years) and shows no further decrease thereafter. In addition, the course over time of interhemispheric decline is different for men compared to women for some tasks. These findings suggest that decreased interhemispheric function may be a possible factor contributing to auditory and communication difficulties experienced by aging adults. In addition, results of this study hold implications for the clinical assessment of interhemispheric function in aging adults and for future research into the functional ramifications of decreased multimodality interhemispheric transfer.

Adult↗