Validation of the U-STARR with the AB-York Crescent of Sound, a New Instrument to Evaluate Speech Intelligibility in Noise and Spatial Hearing Skills

Abstract

The Advanced Bionics® (AB)-York crescent of sound is a new test setup that comprises speech intelligibility in noise and localization tests that represent everyday listening situations. One of its tests is the Sentence Test with Adaptive Randomized Roving levels (STARR) with sentences and noise both presented from straight ahead. For the Dutch population, we adopted the AB-York setup and replaced the English sentences with a validated set of Dutch sentences. The Dutch version of the STARR is called the Utrecht-STARR (U-STARR). This study primarily assesses the validity and reliability of the U-STARR compared to the Plomp test, which is the current Dutch gold standard for speech-in-noise testing. The outcome of both tests is a speech reception threshold in noise (SRTn). Secondary outcomes are the SRTn measured with sounds from spatially separated sources (SISSS) as well as sound localization capability. We tested 29 normal-hearing adults and 18 postlingually deafened adult patients with unilateral cochlear implants (CI). This study shows that the U-STARR is adequate and reliable and seems better suited for severely hearing-impaired persons than the conventional Plomp test. Further, CI patients have poor spatial listening skills, as demonstrated with the AB-York test.

Stable benefits of bilateral over unilateral cochlear implantation after two years: A randomized controlled trial

“…The primary objective outcome measure was speech intelligibility in noise (SRTn), with speech and noise coming from straight ahead, measured with the U‐STARR …”

“…The primary objective outcome measure was speech intelligibility in noise (SRTn), with speech and noise coming from straight ahead, measured with the U-STARR. 16 Objective secondary outcomes were: 1) SISSS, 2) speech intelligibility in silence measured with the standard Dutch phoneme test (using consonant-vowel-consonant [CVC] words), and 3) localization capabilities.…”

Comparison of Bilateral and Unilateral Cochlear Implantation in Adults

“…Speech intelligibility in noise and localization capabilities were tested with the Dutch AB-York crescent of sound. 11,12 The test battery included the following: (1) Utrecht Sentence Test with Adaptive Randomized Roving levels (U-STARR), (2) speechintelligibility test with spatially separated sources (SISSS), and (3) a sound localization test. The AB-York crescent of sound contains 9 audiovisual stands, 7 positioned at 30°intervals and 2 at 15°intervals on either side of 0°( Figure 2).…”

CINGLE-trial: cochlear implantation for siNGLE-sided deafness, a randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation

“…Our primary outcome is the performance on speech perception in noise, measured with the Utrecht Sentence Test with Adaptive Randomized Roving Levels (U-STARR) [ 15 ]. In short, the U-STARR is designed to determine a patient’s ability to understand speech in a noisy environment (signal from front, noise from front: S 0 N 0 .…”

“…2 ). Again, Dutch sentences are used in the same audiometric set-up as the U-STARR [ 15 , 17 ] leading to a SNR (in dB).…”