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Results for “Speech Reception Threshold Test”

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PubMed2006

An audio-visual corpus for speech perception and automatic speech recognition.

An audio-visual corpus has been collected to support the use of common material in speech perception and automatic speech recognition studies. The corpus consists of high-quality audio and video recordings of 1000 sentences spoken by each of 34 talkers. Sentences are simple, syntactically identical phrases such as "place green at B 4 now". Intelligibility tests using the audio signals suggest that the material is easily identifiable in quiet and low levels of stationary noise. The annotated corpus is available on the web for research use.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1987

Long-term effects of monaural, binaural and no amplification in subjects with bilateral hearing loss.

This study expands upon our earlier work by comparing initial PB scores and audiometric thresholds with results obtained 4-17 years later for subjects with bilateral sensorineural hearing losses who were monaurally aided (n = 48), binaurally aided (n = 19), or unaided (n = 19). Thresholds decreased slightly for all groups, but aided and unaided ears did not differ significantly in this respect, revealing no acoustic trauma effect due to hearing aid use. PB scores decreased significantly only for the unaided ear of the monaurally aided subjects, but not for their aided ear, or for the binaurally aided or unaided groups. These findings suggest an auditory deprivation effect for the unaided ear of those wearing a monaural hearing aid. Changes in PB scores were not correlated with duration between the two test dates. Changes in PB scores were correlated with degree of hearing loss only for the unaided group.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

The development of a test of speech reception disability for use in 5- to 8-year-old children with otitis media with effusion.

The study aims to develop a test of speech reception disability under simulated classroom conditions for use in young (5-8 year old) schoolchildren, to manage children with otitis media with effusion more effectively. A new video test, TADAST (Two Alternative Auditory Disability and Speech Reception Test), has been constructed in stages by extensively modifying the FADAST (Four Alternative) currently used to assess auditory disability in adults. Minimal word pair lists which were easily identifiable in picture form were developed and refined, and then formulated as a two alternative forced choice picture test. The distribution characteristics of the new test were defined in 89 schoolchildren with and without otitis media with effusion (OME) and compared with pure-tone audiometry performed at the same time. The test correlated highly with audiometry in older children. The distribution characteristics revealed a considerable proportion of children with bilateral OME with little functional disability who might otherwise be at risk of surgery. The test appeared to be sensitive to a 'history of OME' effect. Further refinements are needed to develop a final version which could also be used to evaluate hearing disability in 4-year-old children.

Audiometry, Pure-Tone↗

PubMed1990

Reproducibility of hearing threshold measurements. Supplementary data on bone-conduction and speech audiometry.

The reproducibility of bone-conduction pure-tone audiometry and speech recognition thresholds has been tested in groups of normal-hearing subjects. Each person was tested twice during the same day, and the test-retest difference was calculated. The reproducibility is presented as the standard deviation of this difference. Bone-conduction threshold measurements have a high degree of test-retest precision, whereas air-bone gaps show a large range of distribution in these normal-hearing subjects. This makes the interpretation of such gaps spurious when values are below 20-30 dB. Speech recognition threshold has the highest degree of test-retest precision of all audiometric tests, and this is probably due to the steep slope of the psychometric function at 50% intelligibility. A more detailed graphic presentation of the 50% point of intersection will bring the reproducibility down to less than 2.5 dB.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Auditory disorder in central nervous system miliary tuberculosis: case report.

We evaluated a 28-year-old female with a unilateral hearing loss of unusual pathogenesis, that of central nervous system miliary tuberculosis. Audiologic and otologic findings were consistent with left retrocochlear disorder, characterized by a profound hearing sensitivity loss, absent acoustic reflexes, normal otoacoustic emissions, and the presence of only wave I of the auditory brainstem response. Imaging studies revealed the presence of multiple punctate lesions, one of which was extra-axial and located at the left cerebellopontine angle. The pattern of audiometric test results, particularly the combination of normal otoacoustic emissions and profound hearing sensitivity loss, contributed importantly to the investigative sequence leading to the final diagnosis.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1996

Selecting different amplification for different listening conditions.

Ten subjects with diverse hearing impairment trialled a multiple-memory hearing aid in everyday life and in a paired-comparison laboratory test. Five subjects evaluated systematic variations of the compression characteristic in two bands, around an individually fitted response, using the Resound PHS-ED instrument. Another five subjects evaluated systematic variations of the frequency response characteristic, around an individually fitted NAL response, using the Widex Quattro B hearing device. In all, five subjects showed benefit from multiple amplification schemes. Both variations in compression and frequency response characteristics were used for different background noises and/or response criteria. There were some similarities across subjects in the choice of amplification schemes in the paired-comparison test. However, data were not sufficient to derive a relationship between preferred amplification schemes and listening conditions. For a number of audiometric and disability-related parameters, no differences were found between those who selected multiple amplification schemes and those who did not.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

The influence of age at implantation on performance with a cochlear implant in children.

OBJECTIVE: This study involved the assessment of speech recognition abilities as a function of age at implantation and length of cochlear implant use in children who received the Nucleus CI22M cochlear implant. STUDY DESIGN: Two separate analyses were performed. The first analysis involved the assessment of speech recognition performance as a function of length of time with a cochlear implant in 48 patients evaluated at 7 years of age. The second analysis involved the assessment of speech recognition performance as a function of age at implantation in 53 patients evaluated 36 months after implantation. Patients were divided into four groups based on length of implant use or age at implantation, and the results were analyzed by a repeated-measures analysis of variance. SETTING: This study was carried out at a tertiary academic medical center. PATIENTS: Patients consisted of children implanted with a Nucleus Multi Channel cochlear implant programmed with the SPEAK encoding strategy. Their ages at the time of evaluation ranged from 5.5 to 7.8 years. Their ages at implantation ranged from 2.4 to 14.5 years. INTERVENTIONS: All patients received a Nucleus Multi Channel cochlear implant programmed with the SPEAK encoding strategy. Word and sentence recognition tests were administered at various ages and at several postimplantation intervals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Performance as a function of length of cochlear implant use and as a function of age at implantation. RESULTS: Patients performed significantly better as length of cochlear implant use increased and age at implantation decreased. When patients were tested at a fixed postimplantation time interval (36 months), there was an overall trend for patients who received the implant at a younger age to perform better in spite of being younger at the time of evaluation. However, these effects were not statistically significant for all speech recognition tests that were administered. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm previous findings indicating continued improvement of speech recognition with time in implanted children. Furthermore, the results support the concept of the advantage of a younger age at implantation.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Comparison of frequency response and aided speech-recognition performance for hearing aids selected by three different prescriptive methods.

The gain and the speech-recognition performance obtained for behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids selected by different prescriptive methods was compared. The three prescriptive methods examined were the NAL-revised method, the Memphis State or COX method, and the POGO-II procedure. Twelve subjects had hearing aids and earmolds selected to match the prescription made by each method. Once selected, the instruments were fine tuned to match the obtained gain to that prescribed and then speech recognition was assessed. Subjects listened to the CUNY Nonsense Syllable Test (NST) in quiet and in noise. Results indicated that, although the prescribed frequency responses differed significantly among methods, there were no differences among the three prescriptive methods in obtained frequency responses or aided speech-recognition performance.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Progressive neural hearing impairment: case report.

This report describes a patient whose ability to understand speech had so deteriorated over 20 years time that she was being considered for a cochlear implant, despite the fact that pure-tone sensitivity loss had not deteriorated proportionately. An unusual combination of otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and auditory evoked potential (AEP) results are described. Click-evoked and distortion product emissions were present and normal-appearing. Auditory brainstem and middle latency responses were totally absent but the N1-P2 complex of the long-latency response was present. The case illustrates the contribution of otoacoustic emissions to site of lesion testing. It also illustrates that the manifestations of pathology can appear in certain epochs of the family of AEPs without affecting the others.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Speech recognition threshold in slightly and fully modulated noise for hearing-impaired subjects.

A previously developed speech test with sentences in noise was modified in an attempt to increase its efficiency. Thus the original, slightly modulated (SM) noise was changed to be fully modulated (FUM), and the speech-to-noise ratio of each word was controlled to make all the words equally difficult. The new and the old version were compared in 41 hearing-impaired subjects. The learning effect was similar for both noises, but the variability was higher for the FUM noise. However, the efficiency of the speech test was slightly better for the FUM noise. Speech recognition in both types of noise was correlated with pure-tone thresholds at high frequencies, i.e. 2000 Hz and above, but not to tone thresholds at lower frequencies. Results in FUM noise and in SM noise were highly correlated, with a correlation coefficient of 0.86.

Aged↗

PubMed1996

[Evaluation of deprivation manifestations of the auditory system in patients with unilateral middle ear deafness before and after surgical therapy].

BACKGROUND: This paper will discuss whether long term conductive hearing loss leads to late onset auditory deprivation as described in the literature in patients suffering from bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and fitted with monaural hearing aids. METHOD: The patients were examined using the Freiburg speech test in the undistorted and distorted forms (according to Dieroff 1985), and the pure tone threshold was ascertained for each patient. Thirty-six preoperative und postoperative results after tympanoplasty and stapes surgery were evaluated. Follow-up was performed six weeks and six months postoperatively. Twenty-one test persons with normal hearing were investigated. RESULTS: Comparison showed that the quotient obtained from undistorted and distorted tests is significantly higher in the affected patients. We even observed a highly significant improvement of this quotient, the speech recognition score (according to Bönninghaus/Röser), and the pure tone threshold after surgery. Seventy-eight percent of our patients showed an improved quotient, and 73% attained a normal value. But in only 29% of all cases did we see a symmetrical quotient in both ears in this period of time. In the statistical evaluation, we were unable to demonstrate a correlation between the patient's age at that moment, the age at the beginning of hearing loss, and this echo quotient. There is also no correlation between the absolute and relative change of the echo quotient and the duration of hearing loss. CONCLUSION: It was evident that the distorted Freiburg speech test is a good method to demonstrate the deprivation of the auditory system. We observed the improvement of the distorted Freiburger speech test at postoperative intervals of six weeks and six months. Hearing training should be applied after surgery in an effort to improve the hearing results.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Callsign Acquisition Test (CAT): speech intelligibility in noise.

OBJECTIVE: The study was designed to assess the effects of noise on the intelligibility of speech elements used in the Callsign Acquisition Test (CAT), developed by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. The CAT consists of 126 test items, or callsigns, each of which is made up of a two-syllable word selected from the 18-item military alphabet (Alpha-Zulu) followed by a one-syllable number (all numbers from 1 to 8, excluding 7). DESIGN: The CAT items were mixed with one of three different types of background noises (pink noise, white noise, and multitalker babble) and presented to 18 listeners. Speech-to-noise ratio for all three noises and the overall level of pink noise were varied in two separate experiments to determine how these variables affected speech intelligibility of the CAT items pronounced by a male talker. CONCLUSIONS: Test results demonstrate speech-to-noise ratio has a significant effect on speech intelligibility of the CAT items under all conditions. Pink noise generated the lowest speech intelligibility scores followed by multitalker babble and then white noise. A change in the overall level of pink noise had only small effect on CAT intelligibility.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2000

The impact of head angle on monaural and binaural performance with directional and omnidirectional hearing aids.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of head turn and monaural and binaural fittings on the sentence reception thresholds of hearing-impaired listeners wearing directional and omnidirectional hearing aids. DESIGN: Sentence reception thresholds were measured for 20 listeners fit monaurally and binaurally with behind-the-ear hearing aids set in both directional and omnidirectional modes. All listeners exhibited symmetrical, sloping, sensorineural hearing loss. The aided performance across these four fittings was evaluated for three different head and body angles. The three angles reflected body turns of 0 degrees, 15 degrees, and 30 degrees as measured relative to the primary sound source, with 0 degrees denoting the listener directly facing the sound source. Listeners were instructed to keep their heads in a fixed horizontal position and turn their heads and bodies to face visual targets at the three test angles. Sentences from the Hearing in Noise Test presented with a background of five, spatially separated, uncorrelated samples of cafeteria noise served as test material. All testing was performed in a moderately reverberant (Rt = 631 msec) "living room" environment. RESULTS: Participants generally performed significantly better when fit with directional versus omnidirectional hearing aids, and when fit binaurally versus monaurally across test conditions. The measured "binaural advantage" was reduced with increasing head angle. Participants performed significantly better with a 30 degree head angle than when directly facing the primary speaker. This "head turn advantage" was most prominent for monaural (versus binaural) conditions. Binaural and head turn advantages were not significantly different across directional and omnidirectional modes. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide additional support for the use of directional hearing aids and binaural amplification to improve speech intelligibility in noisy environments. The magnitude of these advantages was similar to that reported in previous investigations. The data also showed that hearing aid wearers achieved significantly better speech intelligibility in noise by turning their heads and bodies to a position in which they were not directly facing the sound source. This head turn advantage was in good agreement with the increase in Directivity Index with head turn and reflected the fact that hearing aids are generally most sensitive to sounds arriving from angles other than directly in front of the hearing aid wearer. Although these data suggest that many monaural hearing aid wearers may significantly improve speech intelligibility in noise through the use of head turn, the interaction between this advantage and the potential loss of visual cues with head turn is unknown.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Auditory neuropathy in systemic sclerosis: a speech perception and evoked potential study before and after cochlear implantation.

We report the results of speech perception and electrophysiological evaluation of the auditory periphery performed before and after cochlear implantation in a 18-year-old girl with systemic sclerosis (SS) who presented the clinical picture of auditory neuropathy. Transtympanic electrocochleography (ECochG) in response to 0.1 ms clicks was recorded 1 month before cochlear implantation on both sides while the electrically evoked neural response was obtained intraoperatively in the right ear through cochlear implant stimulation. The ECochG recordings revealed the presence of the cochlear microphonic with normal amplitude and threshold on both sides. A compound action potential was only detected in the left ear at high stimulation intensity, while the electrically evoked neural response was clearly identifiable at all the recording sites during neural response telemetry. Standardized speech perception tests were performed 1 month before cochlear implantation and several times after cochlear implant connection. Speech perception scores were close to chance before cochlear implantation while they showed a remarkable improvement thereafter. The results of this study show that subjects affected by SS could present the clinical picture of auditory neuropathy which is possibly underlain by lesions involving the distal portion of auditory nerve fibers and/or synapses with inner hair cells. The restoration of synchronous neural discharge could be achieved by electrical stimulation through cochlear implant.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Using listening difficulty ratings of conditions for speech communication in rooms.

The use of listening difficulty ratings of speech communication in rooms is explored because, in common situations, word recognition scores do not discriminate well among conditions that are near to acceptable. In particular, the benefits of early reflections of speech sounds on listening difficulty were investigated and compared to the known benefits to word intelligibility scores. Listening tests were used to assess word intelligibility and perceived listening difficulty of speech in simulated sound fields. The experiments were conducted in three types of sound fields with constant levels of ambient noise: only direct sound, direct sound with early reflections, and direct sound with early reflections and reverberation. The results demonstrate that (1) listening difficulty can better discriminate among these conditions than can word recognition scores; (2) added early reflections increase the effective signal-to-noise ratio equivalent to the added energy in the conditions without reverberation; (3) the benefit of early reflections on difficulty scores is greater than expected from the simple increase in early arriving speech energy with reverberation; (4) word intelligibility tests are most appropriate for conditions with signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios less than 0 dBA, and where S/N is between 0 and 15-dBA S/N, listening difficulty is a more appropriate evaluation tool.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Finnish speech in noise test: long-term reproducibility.

A computerized adaptive Finnish speech in noise test was developed recently. As part of the test's evaluation process the long-term stability of speech recognition threshold in noise (SRTN) was determined. The non-operated ears of 164 stapes surgery patients were assessed preoperatively and at 1, 7 and 19 months postoperatively. Short-term and long-term repeatability were equal. The absolute intraindividual differences were 1.5 dB on average.

Audiometry, Pure-Tone↗

PubMed2004

Development of a quick speech-in-noise test for measuring signal-to-noise ratio loss in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners.

This paper describes a shortened and improved version of the Speech in Noise (SIN) Test (Etymotic Research, 1993). In the first two of four experiments, the level of a female talker relative to that of four-talker babble was adjusted sentence by sentence to produce 50% correct scores for normal-hearing subjects. In the second two experiments, those sentences-in-babble that produced either lack of equivalence or high across-subject variability in scores were discarded. These experiments produced 12 equivalent lists, each containing six sentences, with one sentence at each adjusted signal-to-noise ratio of 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, and 0 dB. Six additional lists were also made equivalent when the scores of particular pairs were averaged. The final lists comprise the "QuickSIN" test that measures the SNR a listener requires to understand 50% of key words in sentences in a background of babble. The standard deviation of single-list scores is 1.4 dB SNR for hearing-impaired subjects, based on test-retest data. A single QuickSIN list takes approximately one minute to administer and provides an estimate of SNR loss accurate to +/-2.7 dB at the 95% confidence level.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1991

Reliability and validity of infant speech-sound discrimination-in-noise thresholds.

Infants were tested on a speech-sound discrimination-in-noise task using the visual reinforcement infant speech discrimination (VRISD) procedure with an adaptive (up-down) threshold protocol. An adult control group was tested using the same stimuli and apparatus. The speech sounds were synthetic magnitude of ba and magnitude of ga. The masker was band-passed presented continuously at 48 dB SPL. Test-retest reliability was good for both groups, although test-retest differences were smaller for adults. For infants the mean of the absolute values of the differences between tests was only 5.2 dB, and there was less than a 10-dB difference between the two tests of 14 (87.5%) of the 16 infants completing the study. The infant-adult difference in discrimination threshold in noise was 6.9 dB, which agrees well with detection-in-noise thresholds from earlier studies and with discrimination-in-noise thresholds obtained on a subset of subjects in our earlier work. Advantages of the adaptive threshold procedure and its possible applications both in research studies and in the clinic are discussed.

Adult↗