Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of online testing in a quiet room for three auditory perception experiments in normal-hearing listeners: speech, music, and binaural cue. Method: Under Experiment 1, sentence perception was measured using fixed signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs: +10 dB, 0 dB, and −10 dB) and using adaptive speech reception threshold (SRT) procedures. The correct scores were compared between quiet room and soundproof booth listening environments. Experiment 2 was designed to compare melodic contour identification between the two listening environments. Melodic contour identification was assessed with 1, 2, and 4 semitone spacings. Under Experiment 3, interaural level difference (ILD) and interaural time differences (ITD) were measured as a function of carrier frequency. For both measures, two modulated tones (400-ms duration and 100-Hz modulation rate) were sequentially presented through headphones to both ears, and subjects were asked to indicate whether the sound moved to the left or right ear. The measured ITD and ILD were then compared between the two listening environments. Results: There were no significant differences in any outcome measures (SNR- and SRT-based speech perception, melodic contour identification, and ITD/ILD) between the two listening environments. Conclusions: These results suggest that normal-hearing listeners may not require a controlled listening environment in any of the three auditory assessments. As comparable data can be obtained via the online testing tool, using the online auditory experiments is recommended.
Purpose The conventional amplification devices render minimal or no benefit at abating the speech perception problems of individuals with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of noise reduction strategies (multiband spectral subtraction, Wiener-as, Karhunen–Loeve transform [Subspace], and ideal binary mask [IdBM] algorithm) on speech using speech perception measures and acoustic measure among individuals with ANSD. Method Two groups of participants (age: 17–43 years) were recruited in the study. Group I comprised 12 individuals with a confirmed diagnosis of ANSD and not exceeding moderate degree of hearing loss and Group II of 10 individuals with normal hearing in both ears. The signal-to-noise required for 50% speech recognition (SNR-50) was measured for the participants in five conditions, that is, unprocessed speech and speech processed with four noise reduction strategies. Additionally, an acoustic objective measure Extended Short-Time Objective Intelligibility algorithm was employed to estimate the intelligibility index across the conditions. Results Significant difference was found across conditions in both the groups. Pairwise comparison revealed significantly better speech perception on SNR-50 measure with IdBM strategy, for both the groups. No significant difference in SNR-50 was observed with other noise reduction strategies. IdBM condition also gave the highest intelligibility index ( d ) values using Extended Short-Time Objective Intelligibility algorithm. This finding needs to be verified on a larger group of individuals with ANSD. Conclusions IdBM noise reduction strategy rendered significantly lower SNR-50 compared to other noise reduction strategies for individuals with ANSD in this study. This provides clinical evidence for the same and also recommends trying on a larger group of participants before its implementation in hearing devices. Apart from this, the current strategies used in hearing aids provide no improvement in speech identification in noise for this population. Hence, though the present hearing aids may show benefit in quiet condition, chances of its rejection are high in noisy backgrounds.
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