Contributions of lexical tone to Mandarin sentence recognition in hearing-impaired listeners under noisy conditions

Abstract

Mandarin sentence recognition using natural-tone and flattone sentences was tested in 22 subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and 25 listeners with normal hearing (NH) in quiet, speechshaped noise, and two-talker-babble conditions. While little effects of flat tones on sentence recognition were seen in the NH listeners when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was !0 dB, the SNHL listeners showed decreases in flat-tone-sentence recognition in quiet and at +5-dB SNR. Such declined performance was correlated with their degrees of hearing loss. Lexical tone contributes greatly to sentence recognition in hearingimpaired listeners in both quiet and in noise listening conditions.

Speech perception in noise: Masking and unmasking

“…Using meaningful sentences as targets, Patel et al. (2010) demonstrated that meaningful Chinese sentences with flattened F0 contours were as intelligible as those with normal F0 patterns in a quiet environment, however, it was less intelligible under SSN or babble noise, as reported in several other studies (e.g., Wang et al., 2013 ; Chen et al., 2014 ; Li et al., 2019 ).…”

“…It is also related to the perception of sentence intonation and voice pitch. Many studies have focused their interest on the contribution of F0 contours in perceiving Mandarin Chinese (e.g., Kong and Zeng, 2006 ; Krenmayr et al., 2011 ; Lee et al., 2013 ; Li et al., 2019 ; Wang and Xu, 2020 ). Using meaningful sentences as targets, Patel et al.…”

Brain hemispheres with right temporal lobe damage swap dominance in early auditory processing of lexical tones

“…In the RTL group, the speech-comprehension ability for Mandarin Chinese negatively correlated with the lesion volume (Figure 1C, Central), indicating a causal role of the RTL in Mandarin speech perception. Considering the growing awareness that aphasia following a stroke can include deficits in other cognitive functions (Schumacher et al, 2019) and the importance of accurately representing lexicaltone information for hearing-impaired Mandarin speakers (Li et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2020), our study highlights the necessity of rehabilitating the language functions of tonal language speakers who suffer from RTL injury and applying formal lexical-tone-related communication tests in clinical assessment and rehabilitation for patients who are speakers of tonal languages and experience brain injury and communication disorders.…”

Differential weighting of temporal envelope cues from the low-frequency region for Mandarin sentence recognition in noise

“…Third, even in the absence of lexical tone recognition, cues afforded by F0 variation may directly assist speech intelligibility under noisy conditions by focusing the attention of listeners on contextual words and aiding the parsing of continuous speech into meaningful units [ 30 , 61 – 64 ]. Mandarin sentence intelligibility decreased if the F0 contours were flattened under noisy conditions, but not in clear conditions [ 32 , 61 ]. The significance of the dynamic F0 contours in terms of speech intelligibility also applies to non-tonal languages.…”

“…Investigating the perception strategy using envelope cues has important implications because the number of CI users who speak Chinese is growing rapidly, and CIs primarily convey envelop cues. Taking into account that the tonal character of Mandarin and the essential roles of F0 in lexical tone recognition, it is expected that temporal envelope cues from the low-frequency region, where F0 (typically ranges approximately from 100 to 350 Hz for Mandarin lexical tones) falls in [ 32 , 49 , 50 ], are more important for Mandarin sentence recognition under noisy conditions than in clear listening conditions. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the weights of low-frequency region would differ under various kinds of noises.…”