Verification of an automated headphone-based test of spatial release from masking

Gallun, Frederick J.; McMillan, Garnett P.; Kampel, Sean D.; Jakien, Kasey M.; Srinivasan, Nirmal Kumar; Stansell, Meghan M.; Gordon, Samuel Y.

doi:10.1121/2.0000165

Cited by 5 publications

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“…A listener who answered half of the presentations correctly would be assigned a threshold of 0-dB TMR. Gallun et al (2015) applied a Bayesian analysis to the psychometric functions and determined that this approach is most accurate for thresholds between 6-dB and −6-dB TMR and that the greatest errors are in the underestimation of thresholds for listeners with very good performance (better than −6 dB). As the goal of the rapid method is to screen for dysfunction, the gain in speed at the sacrifice of accuracy is appropriate for this use.…”

Section: General Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normative Data for a Rapid, Automated Test of Spatial Release From Masking

Jakien

Gallun

2018

Am J Audiol

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to report normative data and predict thresholds for a rapid test of spatial release from masking for speech perception. The test is easily administered and has good repeatability, with the potential to be used in clinics and laboratories. Normative functions were generated for adults varying in age and amounts of hearing loss. Method The test of spatial release presents a virtual auditory scene over headphones with 2 conditions: colocated (with target and maskers at 0°) and spatially separated (with target at 0° and maskers at ± 45°). Listener thresholds are determined as target-to-masker ratios, and spatial release from masking (SRM) is determined as the difference between the colocated condition and spatially separated condition. Multiple linear regression was used to fit the data from 82 adults 18–80 years of age with normal to moderate hearing loss (0–40 dB HL pure-tone average [PTA]). The regression equations were then used to generate normative functions that relate age (in years) and hearing thresholds (as PTA) to target-to-masker ratios and SRM. Results Normative functions were able to predict thresholds with an error of less than 3.5 dB in all conditions. In the colocated condition, the function included only age as a predictive parameter, whereas in the spatially separated condition, both age and PTA were included as parameters. For SRM, PTA was the only significant predictor. Different functions were generated for the 1st run, the 2nd run, and the average of the 2 runs. All 3 functions were largely similar in form, with the smallest error being associated with the function on the basis of the average of 2 runs. Conclusion With the normative functions generated from this data set, it would be possible for a researcher or clinician to interpret data from a small number of participants or even a single patient without having to first collect data from a control group, substantially reducing the time and resources needed. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7080878

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Section: General Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normative Data for a Rapid, Automated Test of Spatial Release From Masking

Jakien

Gallun

2018

Am J Audiol

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“…As an example, if a listener correctly reported all of the trials at TMR values greater than 2 dB, but none below this value, eight trials would be scored correctly, leading to a threshold estimate of 2 dB. The difficulties with this method occur when the TMR values presented do not cover the range between very good and very poor performance ( Gallun et al, 2016 ). Comparison with adaptive methods ( Gallun et al, 2013 ) suggests that these difficulties do not interfere with the use of this test for the evaluation of patients.…”

Section: General Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validating a Rapid, Automated Test of Spatial Release From Masking

et al. 2017

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PurposeTo evaluate the test–retest reliability of a headphone-based spatial release from a masking task with two maskers (referred to here as the SR2) and to describe its relationship to the same test done over loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber (the SR2A). We explore what thresholds tell us about certain populations (such as older individuals or individuals with hearing impairment) and discuss how the SR2 might be useful in the clinic.MethodFifty-four participants completed speech intelligibility tests in which a target phrase and two masking phrases from the Coordinate Response Measure corpus (Bolia, Nelson, Ericson, & Simpson, 2000) were presented either via earphones using a virtual spatial array or via loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber. For the SR2, the target sentence was always at 0° azimuth angle, and the maskers were either colocated at 0° or positioned at ± 45°. For the SR2A, the target was located at 0°, and the maskers were colocated or located at ± 15°, ± 30°, ± 45°, ± 90°, or ± 135°. Spatial release from masking was determined as the difference between thresholds in the colocated condition and each spatially separated condition. All participants completed the SR2 at least twice, and 29 of the individuals who completed the SR2 at least twice also participated in the SR2A. In a second experiment, 40 participants completed the SR2 8 times, and the changes in performance were evaluated as a function of test repetition.ResultsMean thresholds were slightly better on the SR2 after the first repetition but were consistent across 8 subsequent testing sessions. Performance was consistent for the SR2A, regardless of the number of times testing was repeated. The SR2, which simulates 45° separations of target and maskers, produced spatially separated thresholds that were similar to thresholds obtained with 30° of separation in the anechoic chamber. Over headphones and in the anechoic chamber, pure-tone average was a strong predictor of spatial release, whereas age only reached significance for colocated conditions.ConclusionsThe SR2 is a reliable and effective method of testing spatial release from masking, suitable for screening abnormal listening abilities and for tracking rehabilitation over time. Future work should focus on developing and validating rapid, automated testing to identify the ability of listeners to benefit from high-frequency amplification, smaller spatial separations, and larger spectral differences among talkers.

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“…We narrowed down the list of available TFS measures to those with evidence supporting potential clinical utility and compared them according to criteria of their efficiency and feasibility in a time-constrained clinical battery. The results of this study will be used to guide the translation of a subset of viable clinical measures of TFS processing into a tool for rapid assessment on a platform suitable for clinical deployment, Portable Automated Rapid Testing (PART; Gallun et al, 2015Gallun et al, , 2018. PART is currently available as a research tool for the administration of a set of speech and nonspeech measures.…”

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confidence: 99%

A Comparison of Behavioral Methods for Indexing the Auditory Processing of Temporal Fine Structure Cues

Hoover

Kinney

Bell

et al. 2019

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose Growing evidence supports the inclusion of perceptual tests that quantify the processing of temporal fine structure (TFS) in clinical hearing assessment. Many tasks have been used to evaluate TFS in the laboratory that vary greatly in the stimuli used and whether the judgments require monaural or binaural comparisons of TFS. The purpose of this study was to compare laboratory measures of TFS for inclusion in a battery of suprathreshold auditory tests. A subset of available TFS tasks were selected on the basis of potential clinical utility and were evaluated using metrics that focus on characteristics important for clinical use. Method TFS measures were implemented in replication of studies that demonstrated clinical utility. Monaural, diotic, and dichotic measures were evaluated in 11 young listeners with normal hearing. Measures included frequency modulation (FM) tasks, harmonic frequency shift detection, interaural phase difference (TFS–low frequency), interaural time difference (ITD), monaural gap duration discrimination, and tone detection in noise with and without a difference in interaural phase (N 0 S 0 , N 0 S π ). Data were compared with published results and evaluated with metrics of consistency and efficiency. Results Thresholds obtained were consistent with published data. There was no evidence of predictive relationships among the measures consistent with a homogenous group. The most stable tasks across repeated testing were TFS–low frequency, diotic and dichotic FM, and N 0 S π . Monaural and diotic FM had the lowest normalized variance and were the most efficient accounting for differences in total test duration, followed by ITD. Conclusions Despite a long stimulus duration, FM tasks dominated comparisons of consistency and efficiency. Small differences separated the dichotic tasks FM, ITD, and N 0 S π . Future comparisons following procedural optimization of the tasks will evaluate clinical efficiency in populations with impairment.

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Verification of an automated headphone-based test of spatial release from masking

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Normative Data for a Rapid, Automated Test of Spatial Release From Masking

Normative Data for a Rapid, Automated Test of Spatial Release From Masking

Validating a Rapid, Automated Test of Spatial Release From Masking

A Comparison of Behavioral Methods for Indexing the Auditory Processing of Temporal Fine Structure Cues

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