Sex-mismatch benefit for speech-in-speech recognition by pediatric and adult cochlear implant users

Richter, Margaret E; Dillon, Margaret T.; Buss, Emily; Leibold, Lori J.

doi:10.1121/10.0005806

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 27 publications

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“…Here, “gender” denotes the classical categorization of a talker’s voice with their assigned sex at birth. Different terms have been used in previous speech-on-speech masking studies (e.g., “sex-mismatch benefits” Richter et al, 2021 ).…”

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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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%

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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Effects of better-ear glimpsing, binaural unmasking, and spectral resolution on spatial release from masking in cochlear-implant users

Gibbs

Bernstein

Brungart

et al. 2022

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Bilateral cochlear-implant (BICI) listeners obtain less spatial release from masking (SRM; speech-recognition improvement for spatially separated vs co-located conditions) than normal-hearing (NH) listeners, especially for symmetrically placed maskers that produce similar long-term target-to-masker ratios at the two ears. Two experiments examined possible causes of this deficit, including limited better-ear glimpsing (using speech information from the more advantageous ear in each time-frequency unit), limited binaural unmasking (using interaural differences to improve signal-in-noise detection), or limited spectral resolution. Listeners had NH (presented with unprocessed or vocoded stimuli) or BICIs. Experiment 1 compared natural symmetric maskers, idealized monaural better-ear masker (IMBM) stimuli that automatically performed better-ear glimpsing, and hybrid stimuli that added worse-ear information, potentially restoring binaural cues. BICI and NH-vocoded SRM was comparable to NH-unprocessed SRM for idealized stimuli but was 14%–22% lower for symmetric stimuli, suggesting limited better-ear glimpsing ability. Hybrid stimuli improved SRM for NH-unprocessed listeners but degraded SRM for BICI and NH-vocoded listeners, suggesting they experienced across-ear interference instead of binaural unmasking. In experiment 2, increasing the number of vocoder channels did not change NH-vocoded SRM. BICI SRM deficits likely reflect a combination of across-ear interference, limited better-ear glimpsing, and poorer binaural unmasking that stems from cochlear-implant-processing limitations other than reduced spectral resolution.

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Sex-mismatch benefit for speech-in-speech recognition by pediatric and adult cochlear implant users

Cited by 2 publications

References 27 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

Effects of better-ear glimpsing, binaural unmasking, and spectral resolution on spatial release from masking in cochlear-implant users

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