Our study confirms that hearing loss is highly prevalent in the general unscreened population of older adults. However, the difference in hearing between sexes was considerably less than previously reported. This is probably due to changing lifestyle and environmental circumstances, LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2b Laryngoscope, 127:725-730, 2017.

The insertion of noise in the silent intervals of interrupted speech has a very striking perceptual effect if a certain signal-to-noise ratio is used. Conflicting reports have been published as to whether the inserted noise improves speech intelligibility or not. The major difference between studies was the level of redundancy in the speech material. We show in the present paper that the noise leads to a better intelligibility of interrupted speech. The redundancy level determines the possible amount of improvement. The consequences of our findings are discussed in relation to such phenomena as continuity perception and pulsation threshold measurement. A hypothesis is formulated for the processing of interrupted stimuli with and without intervening noise; for stimuli presented with intervening noise, the presence in the auditory system of an automatic interpolation mechanism is assumed. The mechanism operates only if the noise makes it impossible to perceive the interruption.The insertion of broadband noise in the silent gaps of interrupted speech has a very striking overall auditory effect. While the interrupted speech sounds hoarse and raucous, the insertion of the noise restores fluency: the listener has the impression that he is hearing continuous speech with a superimposed pulsating noise. This phenomenon was first described by Miller and Licklider in 19'0. Whether or not the added noise does lead to a real increase in speech intelligibility has been a matter of discussion ever since. This debate is continued in the present paper.We became interested in the phenomenon after we had utilized the pulsation threshold technique (Houtgast, 1972(Houtgast, , 1974 for the measurement of frequency selectivity (Verschuure, 1977(Verschuure, , 1978(Verschuure, , 1981a(Verschuure, , 1981b. The technique is based on the finding that an alternation of two sine waves can be perceived as a superposition of one pulsating and one continuous tone, given certain relations between frequencies and levelsof the alternating sine waves. The perception of one tone as if it were continuous means that somewhere in the auditory system a gap in information is filled up.With interrupted speech and intervening noise, the gap in information must affect the intelligibility of The authors would like to thank all those who gave so willingly of their time to play the part of listener and S. Smit-Hermer for reading the speech material, Q. van den Brink for stimulating dlscuulons both during and after the Investiptlon and during the preparation of the paper. Also, the financial support received from the Helnslus Houbolt Fund Is Il'atefully acknowled,ed. The authors' mallin, address Is:

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Attempts have been made to find objective parameters for assessing voice quality for many years. Objective measurements such as the dysphonia severity index (DSI), using four parameters (highest frequency, lowest intensity, maximum phonation time and jitter), appear to correlate well with perceptual evaluation. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence, if any, of age and gender on the DSI. The DSI of 118 non-smoking adults (69 females, 49 males, age range 20–79 years) without voice complaints was measured. Age has a significant effect on the DSI and on its parameters highest frequency and lowest intensity (only in females). Gender has no effect on the DSI, although it has a significant effect on the parameters highest frequency and maximum phonation time. To be able to distinguish between the effects of (normal) ageing and a voice disorder, normative data of a wide age range are essential. As a result of this study normative DSI values for gender and age have been made available.

In a prospective study the effects on the voice of nandrolone decanoate super-imposed on cyclical hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) given to post-menopausal women suffering from a severe form osteoporosis were compared with the effects of HRT alone. Comparing the experimental group with the control group, after one year of medication in the experimental group a higher percentage of patients had: a lower fundamental frequency during speech, a loss of high frequencies and an increase in voice instability and creakiness. The lowering of the frequencies and the increase of instability can be explained by histological changes in the vocal cords and by problems in the adaptation to these histological changes.