Auditory Detection, Discrimination and Speech Processing in Ageing, Noise-sensitive and Hearing-impaired Listeners

Abel, Sharon M.; Krever, E. M.; Alberti, P. W.

doi:10.3109/01050399009070751

Cited by 117 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Converging evidence from psychoacoustic studies in older adults with normal pure-tone thresholds for their age (ISO 2000) and conducted using stimuli in the low-frequency range where their audiometric thresholds remain normal also point to age-related deficits in temporal processing for cues carried by the envelope as well as the fine structure (for a review see Pichora-Fuller & MacDonald 2008). In particular, reduced performance by older listeners on measures such as frequency difference limens (Abel et al 1990), temporal fine structure sensitivity (Hopkins & Moore 2011), and specific patterns of binaural masking level differences (e.g., PichoraFuller & Schneider 1992) is consistent with the hypothesis that a loss of neural synchrony or reduced phase-locking may manifest as age-related declines in coding periodicity cues in temporal fine structure. Such age-related declines in auditory temporal processing seem to be consistent with physiological findings from studies using animal models (e.g., Khimich et al 2005;Kujawa & Liberman 2009;Buran et al 2010;Ison et al 2010).…”

Section: Simulating Snhlsupporting

confidence: 53%

Word Recognition for Temporally and Spectrally Distorted Materials

et al. 2012

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Objectives: The purpose of Experiment 1 was to measure word recognition in younger adults with normal hearing when speech or babble was temporally or spectrally distorted. In Experiment 2, older listeners with near-normal hearing and with hearing loss (for pure tones) were tested to evaluate their susceptibility to changes in speech level and distortion types. The results across groups and listening conditions were compared to assess the extent to which the effects of the distortions on word recognition resembled the effects of age-related differences in auditory processing or pure-tone hearing loss. Design:In Experiment 1, word recognition was measured in 16 younger adults with normal hearing using Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 words in quiet and the Words-in-Noise test distorted by temporal jittering, spectral smearing, or combined jittering and smearing. Another 16 younger adults were evaluated in four conditions using the Words-inNoise test in combinations of unaltered or jittered speech and unaltered or jittered babble. In Experiment 2, word recognition in quiet and in babble was measured in 72 older adults with near-normal hearing and 72 older adults with hearing loss in four conditions: unaltered, jittered, smeared, and combined jittering and smearing.Results: For the listeners in Experiment 1, word recognition was poorer in the distorted conditions compared with the unaltered condition. The signal to noise ratio at 50% correct word recognition was 4.6 dB for the unaltered condition, 6.3 dB for the jittered, 6.8 dB for the smeared, 6.9 dB for the double-jitter, and 8.2 dB for the combined jitter-smear conditions. Jittering both the babble and speech signals did not significantly reduce performance compared with jittering only the speech. In Experiment 2, the older listeners with near-normal hearing and hearing loss performed best in the unaltered condition, followed by the jitter and smear conditions, with the poorest performance in the combined jitter-smear condition in both quiet and noise. Overall, listeners with near-normal hearing performed better than listeners with hearing loss by ~30% in quiet and ~6 dB in noise. In the quiet distorted conditions, when the level of the speech was increased, performance improved for the hearing loss group, but decreased for the older group with near-normal hearing. Recognition performance of younger listeners in the jitter-smear condition and the performance of older listeners with near-normal hearing in the unaltered conditions were similar. Likewise, the performance of older listeners with near-normal hearing in the jitter-smear condition and the performance of older listeners with hearing loss in the unaltered conditions were similar. Conclusions:The present experiments advance our understanding regarding how spectral or temporal distortions of the fine structure of speech affect word recognition in older listeners with and without clinically significant hearing loss. The Speech Intelligibility Index was able to predict group differences, but not t...

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Section: Simulating Snhlsupporting

confidence: 53%

Word Recognition for Temporally and Spectrally Distorted Materials

et al. 2012

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“…The first ABR wave (Wave 1) represents summed activity of the cochlear nerve (Z. Chen et al, 2006). Generators of later waves are less well studied in mouse than in human or cat (Melcher and Kiang, 1996).…”

Section: Cochlear Thresholds and Suprathreshold Response Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-Related Cochlear Synaptopathy: An Early-Onset Contributor to Auditory Functional Decline

et al. 2013

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Aging listeners experience greater difficulty understanding speech in adverse listening conditions and exhibit degraded temporal resolution, even when audiometric thresholds are normal. When threshold evidence for peripheral involvement is lacking, central and cognitive factors are often cited as underlying performance declines. However, previous work has uncovered widespread loss of cochlear afferent synapses and progressive cochlear nerve degeneration in noise-exposed ears with recovered thresholds and no hair cell loss (Kujawa and Liberman 2009). Here, we characterize age-related cochlear synaptic and neural degeneration in CBA/CaJ mice never exposed to high-level noise. Cochlear hair cell and neuronal function was assessed via distortion product otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem responses, respectively. Immunostained cochlear whole mounts and plastic-embedded sections were studied by confocal and conventional light microscopy to quantify hair cells, cochlear neurons, and synaptic structures, i.e., presynaptic ribbons and postsynaptic glutamate receptors. Cochlear synaptic loss progresses from youth (4 weeks) to old age (144 weeks) and is seen throughout the cochlea long before age-related changes in thresholds or hair cell counts. Cochlear nerve loss parallels the synaptic loss, after a delay of several months. Key functional clues to the synaptopathy are available in the neural response; these can be accessed noninvasively, enhancing the possibilities for translation to human clinical characterization.

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“…If so, the DLF at low and medium frequencies provides a measure of TFS processing. Abel et al (1990) and He et al (1998) compared DLFs for young and older subjects with normal hearing (audiometric thresholds ≤ 20 dB HL from 0.25 to 4 kHz). In both studies, DLFs were larger by a factor of 2-4 for the older than for the younger subjects, suggesting that there is an effect of age.…”

Section: Monaural Processing Of Tfsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Age and Hearing Loss on the Processing of Auditory Temporal Fine Structure

Moore

2016

Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

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Within the cochlea, broadband sounds like speech and music are filtered into a series of narrowband signals, each of which can be considered as a relatively slowly varying envelope (ENV) imposed on a rapidly oscillating carrier (the temporal fine structure, TFS). Information about ENV and TFS is conveyed in the timing and short-term rate of nerve spikes in the auditory nerve. There is evidence that both hearing loss and increasing age adversely affect the ability to use TFS information, but in many studies the effects of hearing loss and age have been confounded. This paper summarises evidence from studies that allow some separation of the effects of hearing loss and age. The results suggest that the monaural processing of TFS information, which is important for the perception of pitch and for segregating speech from background sounds, is adversely affected by both hearing loss and increasing age, the former being more important. The monaural processing of ENV information is hardly affected by hearing loss or by increasing age. The binaural processing of TFS information, which is important for sound localisation and the binaural masking level difference, is also adversely affected by both hearing loss and increasing age, but here the latter seems more important. The deterioration of binaural TFS processing with increasing age appears to start relatively early in life. The binaural processing of ENV information also deteriorates somewhat with increasing age. The reduced binaural processing abilities found for older/hearing-impaired listeners may partially account for the difficulties that such listeners experience in situations where the target speech and interfering sounds come from different directions in space, as is common in everyday life.

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Auditory Detection, Discrimination and Speech Processing in Ageing, Noise-sensitive and Hearing-impaired Listeners

Cited by 117 publications

References 30 publications

Word Recognition for Temporally and Spectrally Distorted Materials

Word Recognition for Temporally and Spectrally Distorted Materials

Age-Related Cochlear Synaptopathy: An Early-Onset Contributor to Auditory Functional Decline

Effects of Age and Hearing Loss on the Processing of Auditory Temporal Fine Structure

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