Effects of Ageing and Hearing Thresholds on Speech Perception in Quiet and in Noise Perceived in Different Locations

Abstract

Background and ObjectivesThis study investigated the effect of ageing on speech perception in quiet and in noise, with noise directed from front, right and left.Subjects and MethodsSixty Malay native adults with normal or near normal hearing comprising of 20 young adults (21 to 39 years old), 20 middle aged (40 to 59 years old) and 20 older adults (60 to 74 years old) participated in this study. Their speech perception ability was measured using the Malay Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) in four test conditions; 1) in quiet (HINT Q), 2) with noise from front (HINT NF), 3) with noise from right (HINT NR), and 4) with noise from left (HINT NL). Reception thresholds for sentences (RTSs) were measured in each of the aforementioned conditions using an adaptive method.ResultsThe results showed that, 1) genuine age-related decline was found in speech perception performance in HINT (NF), 2) hearing threshold was a major determinant differentiating speech perception performance for HINT (Q) and HINT (NL) conditions, and 3) speech perception performance for HINT (NR) was determined by both age and hearing threshold.ConclusionsThis study suggests that, in older adults, while hearing thresholds affect speech perception in quiet, other factors such as central auditory processing and cognitive functions might be more important determinant factors for speech perception performance in noise.

Lowest Oxyhemoglobin Saturation May Be an Independent Factor Influencing Auditory Function in Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea

“…This finding is consistent with the theory that a higher susceptibility of hair cells in the basal turn to the damage caused by free radicals. [16][17][18][19] We were unable to analyze the exact relation to hearing according to graded groups of lowest oxyhemoglobin saturation (below 90%, 85%, or 75%), as the groups contained too few patients. However, our results demonstrated a relation between hearing and lowest oxyhemoglobin saturation in the correlation graphs.…”

Auditory Spatial Deficits in the Early Stage of Ischemic Cerebral Stroke

“…The ability of understanding speech is disturbed in aphasia, but it depends also on the hearing threshold of human speech (.5-2 kHz) and age. 48 There were 3 subjects with aphasia among our patients with speech discrimination score below 70%. It is not clear whether sound localization is disturbed in such cases because of damage of the posterior part of the upper temporal gyrus where speech analysis takes place or also of other parts of the brain because sound localizations seem to activate both hemispheres.…”

The speech audiometry using the matrix sentence test

“…Эти ре-зультаты согласуются с другими данными о снижении разборчивости речи, преимущественно в шуме, у пожи-лых людей с нормальными порогами слуха [21,22]. В то же время тест по оценке разборчивости односложных слов в тишине как у молодых, так и у пожилых лиц был в преде-лах нормы, что может свидетельствовать о более низкой чувствительности этого теста для выявления дефицита разборчивости.…”