An Alternative Explanation for Difficulties with Speech in Background Talkers: Abnormal Fusion of Vowels Across Fundamental Frequency and Ears

Reiss, Lina A. J.; Molis, Michelle R.

doi:10.1007/s10162-021-00790-7

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In hearing-impaired (HI) listeners, bilateral device use including hearing aid (HA) and/or cochlear implant (CI) can be a major factor for binaural listening advantages in both voice-gender difference and spatial separation cues ( Litovsky et al, 2006 ; Marrone et al, 2008 ; Visram et al, 2012 ; Bernstein et al, 2016 ). However, benefits from bilateral devices are highly variable, and often provide little speech perception benefit or even interfere with speech perception, compared to monaural device use ( Litovsky et al, 2006 ; Ching et al, 2007 ; Reiss et al, 2016 ; Reiss and Molis, 2021 ). Reduced benefits of voice-gender differences in HI listeners could be attributed to poorer monaural frequency resolution for representation of pitch or even vocal tract length cues for voice pitch discrimination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10.3389/fnins.2022.1059639 Reduced benefits of voice-gender differences in HI listeners could be attributed to poorer monaural frequency resolution for representation of pitch or even vocal tract length cues for voice pitch discrimination. Alternatively, recent findings suggest that reduced benefits from voice-gender difference could be explained by an increased likelihood to integrate dichotic stimuli that evoke different pitches between two ears into a single fused sound, which is termed binaural pitch fusion (Reiss and Molis, 2021;Oh et al, 2022). Generally, binaural pitch fusion is narrow in NH listeners because the two ears provide essentially matched spectral information for a given signal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors underlying masking release by voice-gender differences and spatial separation cues in multi-talker listening environments in listeners with and without hearing loss

Hartling

Srinivasan

et al. 2022

Front. Neurosci.

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Voice-gender differences and spatial separation are important cues for auditory object segregation. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship of voice-gender difference benefit to the breadth of binaural pitch fusion, the perceptual integration of dichotic stimuli that evoke different pitches across ears, and the relationship of spatial separation benefit to localization acuity, the ability to identify the direction of a sound source. Twelve bilateral hearing aid (HA) users (age from 30 to 75 years) and eleven normal hearing (NH) listeners (age from 36 to 67 years) were tested in the following three experiments. First, speech-on-speech masking performance was measured as the threshold target-to-masker ratio (TMR) needed to understand a target talker in the presence of either same- or different-gender masker talkers. These target-masker gender combinations were tested with two spatial configurations (maskers co-located or 60° symmetrically spatially separated from the target) in both monaural and binaural listening conditions. Second, binaural pitch fusion range measurements were conducted using harmonic tone complexes around a 200-Hz fundamental frequency. Third, absolute localization acuity was measured using broadband (125–8000 Hz) noise and one-third octave noise bands centered at 500 and 3000 Hz. Voice-gender differences between target and maskers improved TMR thresholds for both listener groups in the binaural condition as well as both monaural (left ear and right ear) conditions, with greater benefit in co-located than spatially separated conditions. Voice-gender difference benefit was correlated with the breadth of binaural pitch fusion in the binaural condition, but not the monaural conditions, ruling out a role of monaural abilities in the relationship between binaural fusion and voice-gender difference benefits. Spatial separation benefit was not significantly correlated with absolute localization acuity. In addition, greater spatial separation benefit was observed in NH listeners than in bilateral HA users, indicating a decreased ability of HA users to benefit from spatial release from masking (SRM). These findings suggest that sharp binaural pitch fusion may be important for maximal speech perception in multi-talker environments for both NH listeners and bilateral HA users.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors underlying masking release by voice-gender differences and spatial separation cues in multi-talker listening environments in listeners with and without hearing loss

Hartling

Srinivasan

et al. 2022

Front. Neurosci.

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“…It is thus unclear from these previous studies whether bimodal CI use is more beneficial than bilateral CI use for competing speech. However, broad binaural pitch fusion is associated with the fusion of vowels, and as a consequence, the averaging of spectral information across ears and fundamental frequency (Reiss & Molis 2021), which may reduce the benefits of competing speech. Thus, broad binaural fusion may account for some of this variation among bimodal CI users, and potentially also bilateral CI users, as well as reduce apparent benefits of bimodal hearing compared with bilateral CI use.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reiss et al (2016) also showed that broad fusion and the resultant spectral averaging can lead to worse perception of vowels with both ears compared with the better ear alone, also known as binaural interference. Further, broad fusion was shown to also be associated with fusion and spectral averaging of dichotic vowels with voice fundamental frequencies differing by as much as ~95 Hz (Reiss & Molis 2021). Those findings suggest that broad pitch fusion is associated with greater difficulty in using voice pitch difference cues to separate a target voice from other interfering voices in listeners with hearing loss.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential Effects of Binaural Pitch Fusion Range on the Benefits of Voice Gender Differences in a “Cocktail Party” Environment for Bimodal and Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users

Srinivasan

Hartling

et al. 2022

Ear &Amp; Hearing

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Objectives: Some cochlear implant (CI) users are fitted with a CI in each ear (“bilateral”), while others have a CI in one ear and a hearing aid in the other (“bimodal”). Presently, evaluation of the benefits of bilateral or bimodal CI fitting does not take into account the integration of frequency information across the ears. This study tests the hypothesis that CI listeners, especially bimodal CI users, with a more precise integration of frequency information across ears (“sharp binaural pitch fusion”) will derive greater benefit from voice gender differences in a multi-talker listening environment. Design: Twelve bimodal CI users and twelve bilateral CI users participated. First, binaural pitch fusion ranges were measured using the simultaneous, dichotic presentation of reference and comparison stimuli (electric pulse trains for CI ears and acoustic tones for HA ears) in opposite ears, with reference stimuli fixed and comparison stimuli varied in frequency/electrode to find the range perceived as a single sound. Direct electrical stimulation was used in implanted ears through the research interface, which allowed selective stimulation of one electrode at a time, and acoustic stimulation was used in the non-implanted ears through the headphone. Second, speech-on-speech masking performance was measured to estimate masking release by voice gender difference between target and maskers (VGRM). The VGRM was calculated as the difference in speech recognition thresholds of target sounds in the presence of same-gender or different-gender maskers. Results: Voice gender differences between target and masker talkers improved speech recognition performance for the bimodal CI group, but not the bilateral CI group. The bimodal CI users who benefited the most from voice gender differences were those who had the narrowest range of acoustic frequencies that fused into a single sound with stimulation from a single electrode from the CI in the opposite ear. There was no similar voice gender difference benefit of narrow binaural fusion range for the bilateral CI users. Conclusions: The findings suggest that broad binaural fusion reduces the acoustical information available for differentiating individual talkers in bimodal CI users, but not for bilateral CI users. In addition, for bimodal CI users with narrow binaural fusion who benefit from voice gender differences, bilateral implantation could lead to a loss of that benefit and impair their ability to selectively attend to one talker in the presence of multiple competing talkers. The results suggest that binaural pitch fusion, along with an assessment of residual hearing and other factors, could be important for assessing bimodal and bilateral CI users.

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“…As is well-attested in the literature, multitalker (cocktail party) environments can be particularly challenging for older participants, those with hearing or language impairments, and non-native speakers whose proficiency differs across native and non-native languages (Cooke, Garcia Lecumberri, & Barker, 2008;Ruggles, Bharadwaj, & Shinn-Cunningham, 2012;Reiss & Molis, 2021). In order to make appropriate and effective clinical and educational interventions to identify and help such individuals, it is important to understand how language proficiency and age might interact with the degree of listening challenge.…”

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confidence: 99%

A one-man bilingual cocktail party: Linguistic and non-linguistic effects on bilinguals' speech comprehension in Mandarin and English

Smith

Holt

Dick³

2022

Preprint

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In bilingual communities, distinct languages may vie for attention in multitalker conversations. But we do not yet have a detailed understanding of selective attention with the ‘bilingual cocktail party’ with which to develop appropriate and effective clinical and educational interventions. Here we develop a new assay of selective attention to competing Mandarin and English speech in which either language can be heard as target and distractor, and extraneous voice cues are eliminated by using speech from a single talker whose speech is perceived as native in both languages. In Experiment 1, native-English and native-Mandarin Mandarin-English bilingual participants heard simultaneous speech in a ‘one-man bilingual cocktail party’ involving English targets. Comprehension was greater with simultaneous Mandarin distractors than English distractors for both groups. In Experiment 2, Mandarin-English bilinguals experienced both languages as targets and as distractors. Again, there was a substantial disadvantage to comprehension when target and distractor languages matched.

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An Alternative Explanation for Difficulties with Speech in Background Talkers: Abnormal Fusion of Vowels Across Fundamental Frequency and Ears

Cited by 10 publications

References 32 publications

Factors underlying masking release by voice-gender differences and spatial separation cues in multi-talker listening environments in listeners with and without hearing loss

Factors underlying masking release by voice-gender differences and spatial separation cues in multi-talker listening environments in listeners with and without hearing loss

Differential Effects of Binaural Pitch Fusion Range on the Benefits of Voice Gender Differences in a “Cocktail Party” Environment for Bimodal and Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users

A one-man bilingual cocktail party: Linguistic and non-linguistic effects on bilinguals' speech comprehension in Mandarin and English

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