Effect of face masks on speech understanding: A clinical perspective during speech audiometry

Kumar, Rawish; Munjal, Sanjay; Sharma, Anuradha; Alam, Noorain; Panda, Naresh K.

doi:10.1016/j.joto.2022.04.004

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The presented study fills in gaps in the available literature [35] (i) it is based on speech and noise stimuli that were recorded under controlled acoustic conditions and therefore are highly repeatable; (ii) the laboratory characterization of the face masks was based on well-defined standards and procedures; (iii) the presentation of the listening tests was performed to two ears at the same time, so binaural hearing cues were accounted for as in ecological listening situations; (iv) a comparison between the EG of HoH listeners and the CG with TH ones could be performed to obtain results that have larger applicability in everyday life situations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Indeed, this difference was statistically significant and, overall, with an increasingly competitive acoustic scenario (i.e., with lower SNRs) even listeners with TH revealed a tendency of increased difficulty in the listening task to which they were subjected. A recently published paper by Kumar et al [35] underlined that the combined effect of face masks and competitive noise scenarios further hampers speech intelligibility for HoH listeners. In their study, they showed that at decreasing SNRs, i.e., from +15 dB SNR to +10 dB SNR to 0 dB SNR, speech intelligibility drops from averages of 95%, 90%, and 50%, respectively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges for Children with Cochlear Implants in Everyday Listening Scenarios: The Competitive Effect of Noise and Face Masks on Speech Intelligibility

et al. 2023

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Speech intelligibility (SI) tests under realistic acoustic scenarios are complex tasks to perform. Optimal acoustics, in terms of reverberation and noise, are thus needed. This is particularly true in the presence of young hard-of-hearing (HoH) children equipped with cochlear implants who need speech to be highly intelligible to learn. During the COVID-19 pandemic starting in early 2020, wearing face masks became common to avoid the spread of infection, mainly impacting the increasingly challenging task of listening for HoH listeners. This study investigated the influence of different types of face masks on speech intelligibility and listening difficulty under competitive noise scenarios. Fourteen children with cochlear implants were involved, as well as six children with typical hearing. Three types of face masks with different acoustic, filtration, and breathability characteristics were considered; three signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of +10 dB, +5 dB, and 0 dB were used. As expected, lower SNRs corresponded to lower speech intelligibility, and SI without a mask was similar to that obtained with a mask at the lowest acoustic attenuation, albeit with a low filtration efficiency. These preliminary outcomes help improve speech communication strategies in classrooms to support optimal listening conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges for Children with Cochlear Implants in Everyday Listening Scenarios: The Competitive Effect of Noise and Face Masks on Speech Intelligibility

et al. 2023

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“…In addition to nonverbal communication benefits, transparent masks also facilitate speech comprehension. While most studies suggest that transparent masks attenuate the sound of speech more than other mask types (Bottalico et al, 2020;Atcherson et al, 2021;Kumar et al, 2022;Ritter et al, 2022), the restoration of visual mouth cues seems to compensate for this detriment (e.g., Atcherson et al, 2017;Thibodeau et al, 2021;Zhou et al, 2022;Yi et al, 2023). Indeed, 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1371142 Frontiers in Communication 03 frontiersin.org Thibodeau et al (2021) found that although transparent masks impaired verbal comprehension relative to opaque masks when speech was presented in auditory only format, verbal comprehension was significantly improved by transparent masks when both visual and auditory cues were provided.…”

Section: Transparent Masks Reduce Communication Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As reviewed by Francis et al (2024) and Marler and Ditton (2021), face masks occlude lip movements and physically dampen the sound (e.g., Bottalico et al, 2020;Cruz et al, 2022;Moon et al, 2022;Zhou et al, 2022) and prosody (Sinagra and Wiener, 2022) of speech. This makes it more difficult for individuals to discriminate speech when the speaker is masked (e.g., Bandaru et al, 2020;Bottalico et al, 2020;Giovanelli et al, 2021;Homans and Vroegop, 2022;Kim and Thompson, 2022;Kumar et al, 2022;Moon et al, 2022;Ritter et al, 2022;Zhou et al, 2022) and results in increased effort required to process speech (Giovanelli et al, 2021;Mendel et al, 2022). This detriment in verbal comprehension seems to disproportionately impact those with hearing loss (Atcherson et al, 2017;Aguillon-Hernandez et al, 2022;Mendel et al, 2022;Ritter et al, 2022) and is exacerbated when there is background noise competing with the speaker (Kumar et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving masked communication: the case for transparent masks

McCrackin,

Ristic

2024

Front. Commun.

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Clear and compassionate communication is tantamount to quality of care and patient wellbeing. Yet, much of communication in healthcare occurs with lower faces visually hidden behind opaque face masks. Visual occlusion of the face by masks impairs both verbal and nonverbal communication, including recognition of basic emotions, perceptions of trustworthiness, emotional understanding, and empathic responding. This piece presents a brief overview of the new COVID-19 inspired literature which shows that visual face occlusion creates significant communication barriers which can be reduced by wearing transparent instead of opaque masks.

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“…Several studies have addressed this phenomenon to determine the effect of different types of masking elements. Some evaluate the objective attenuation produced by the element by itself, while others evaluate the insertion loss it introduces, the subjective effect that this device could be causing on the speaker, or address the effects on specific groups of workers [106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117]. This might be a particularly serious problem in the case of people with hearing problems, since not being able to see the mouth of the interlocutors makes communication even more difficult for this segment of the population [118].…”

Section: Individualsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Muted and Remixed the World’s Acoustics for a While

2022

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Purpose of ReviewThis review aims to analyze the effects of the pandemic on the world's sound environment. Recent Findings The confinements associated with the pandemic led to a reduction in sound levels worldwide and a change in the perception of soundscapes in the absence of traffic noise and human-generated noise. Summary In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries and regions around the world adopted a series of interventions in 2020 that have been referred to as "lockdown" or "confinement." These sets of restrictions had a clear and obvious consequence derived from the absence of people in the streets and the reduction of daily activity and commuting, which caused an unprecedented silencing on a large scale. Along with the silence that ensued, the pandemic and the confinements affected acoustics and our relationship with sounds on different scales. In the cities, this phenomenon had a strong reduction in acoustic intensity due to the absence of vehicles on the streets. Perhaps this was more perceptible in our neighborhoods, with notable changes in their soundscapes, first due to the absence of people in the streets and later due to more outdoor activity derived from the fear of the spread of the virus in indoor spaces. The longer periods of time spent in our homes during the lockdowns also highlighted the importance of sound insulation in buildings and the acoustic conditioning of our schools or homes.

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Effect of face masks on speech understanding: A clinical perspective during speech audiometry

Cited by 4 publications

References 25 publications

Challenges for Children with Cochlear Implants in Everyday Listening Scenarios: The Competitive Effect of Noise and Face Masks on Speech Intelligibility

Challenges for Children with Cochlear Implants in Everyday Listening Scenarios: The Competitive Effect of Noise and Face Masks on Speech Intelligibility

Improving masked communication: the case for transparent masks

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Muted and Remixed the World’s Acoustics for a While

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