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Forward masking is generally greater for Gaussian noise (GN) than for low-fluctuation noise maskers, i.e., GN disruption. Because the minimal hearing loss that is associated with older age may affect GN disruption differently than more significant hearing loss, the current study explored the contribution of minimal hearing loss associated with older age to GN disruption. GN disruption was measured using three masker-signal delays (25, 75, and 150 ms) for three adult groups: younger participants with normal hearing (NH), older participants with minimal hearing loss, and older participants with sensorineural hearing loss. The role of underlying mechanisms was tested using a computational model for midbrain neurons. The primary result suggests that older listeners with mild threshold elevations that typically occur with age may be more susceptible to the deleterious effects of masker envelope fluctuations than younger listeners with NH. Results from the computational model indicate that there may be a larger influence of efferent feedback and saturation of inner hair cells on forward masking and GN disruption than previously considered.
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Sordera , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural , Pérdida Auditiva , Adulto , Humanos , Umbral Auditivo/fisiología , Enmascaramiento Perceptual/fisiologíaRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of this project was to evaluate the influence of speech audibility on speech recognition with frequency composition, a frequency-lowering algorithm used in hearing aids. DESIGN: Participants were tested to determine word and sentence recognition thresholds in background noise, with and without frequency composition. The audibility of speech was quantified using the speech intelligibility index (SII). STUDY SAMPLE: Participants included 17 children (ages 6-16) and 21 adults (ages 19 to 72) with bilateral mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss. RESULTS: Word and sentence recognition thresholds did not change significantly with frequency composition. Participants with better aided speech audibility had better speech recognition in noise, regardless of processing condition, than those with poorer aided audibility. For the child participants, changes in the word recognition threshold between processing conditions were predictable from aided speech audibility. However, this relationship depended strongly on one participant with a low SII and otherwise, changes in speech recognition between frequency composition off and on were not predicable from aided speech audibility. CONCLUSION: While these results suggest that children who have a low-aided SII may benefit from frequency composition, further data are needed to generalise these findings to a greater number of participants and variety of stimuli.
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Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural , Percepción del Habla , Adolescente , Adulto , Anciano , Niño , Pérdida Auditiva Bilateral , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/diagnóstico , Humanos , Persona de Mediana Edad , Inteligibilidad del Habla , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: The primary aim of this study is to describe the effect of hearing aid amplification on the contribution of specific frequency bands to overall loudness in adult listeners with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Results for listeners with SNHL were compared with results for listeners with normal hearing (NH) to evaluate whether amplification restores the normal perception of loudness for broadband sound. A secondary aim of this study is to determine whether the loudness perception of new hearing aid users becomes closer to normal over the first few months of hearing aid use. It was hypothesized that amplification would cause the high-frequency bands to contribute most to the perception of loudness and that this effect might decrease as new hearing aid users adapt to amplification. DESIGN: In experiment 1, 8 adult listeners with SNHL completed a two-interval forced-choice loudness task in unaided and aided conditions. A control group of 7 listeners with NH completed the task in the unaided condition only. Stimuli were composed of seven summed noise bands whose levels were independently adjusted between presentations. During a trial, two stimuli were presented, and listeners determined the louder one. The correlation between the difference in levels for a given noise band on every trial and the listener's response was calculated. The resulting measure is termed the perceptual weight because it provides an estimate of the relative contribution of a given frequency region to overall loudness. In experiment 2, a separate group of 6 new hearing aid users repeated identical procedures on 2 sessions separated by 12 weeks. RESULTS: Results for listeners with SNHL were similar in experiments 1 and 2. In the unaided condition, perceptual weights were greatest for the low-frequency bands. In the aided condition, perceptual weights were greatest for the high-frequency bands. On average, the aided perceptual weights for listeners with SNHL for high-frequency bands were greater than the unaided weights for listeners with NH. In experiment 2, hearing aid experience did not have a significant effect on perceptual weights. CONCLUSIONS: The high frequencies seem to dominate loudness perception in listeners with SNHL using hearing aids as they do in listeners with NH. However, the results suggest that amplification causes high frequencies to have a larger contribution to overall loudness compared with listeners with NH. The contribution of the high frequencies to loudness did not change after an acclimatization period for the first-time hearing aid users.
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Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/rehabilitación , Percepción Sonora , Adaptación Fisiológica , Adulto , Anciano , Estudios de Casos y Controles , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this experiment was to examine the contributions of audibility to the ability to perceive a gap in noise for children and adults. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in adulthood is associated with a deficit in gap detection. It is well known that reduced audibility in adult listeners with SNHL contributes to this deficit; however, it is unclear the extent to which hearing aid amplification can restore gap-detection thresholds, and the effect of childhood SNHL on gap-detection thresholds have not been described. For adults, it was hypothesized that restoring the dynamic range of hearing for listeners with SNHL would lead to approximately normal gap-detection thresholds. Children with normal hearing (NH) exhibit poorer gap-detection thresholds than adults. Because of their hearing loss, children with SNHL have less auditory experience than their peers with NH. Yet, it is unknown the extent to which auditory experience impacts their ability to perceive gaps in noise. Even with the provision of amplification, it was hypothesized that children with SNHL would show a deficit in gap detection, relative to their peers with normal hearing, because of reduced auditory experience. DESIGN: The ability to detect a silent interval in noise was tested by adapting the stimulus level required for detection of gap durations between 3 and 20 ms for adults and children with and without SNHL. Stimulus-level thresholds were measured for participants with SNHL without amplification and with two prescriptive procedures-the adult and child versions of the desired sensation level i/o program-using a hearing aid simulator. The child version better restored the normal dynamic range than the adult version. Adults and children with NH were tested without amplification. RESULTS: When fitted using the procedure that best restored the dynamic range, adults with SNHL had stimulus-level thresholds similar to those of adults with normal hearing. Compared to the children with NH, the children with SNHL required a higher stimulus level to detect a 5-ms gap, despite having used the procedure that better restored the normal dynamic range of hearing. Otherwise, the two groups of children had similar stimulus-level thresholds. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that apparent deficits in temporal resolution, as measured using stimulus-level thresholds for the detection of gaps, are dependent on age and audibility. These novel results indicate that childhood SNHL may impair temporal resolution as measured by stimulus-level thresholds for the detection of a gap in noise. This work has implications for understanding the effects of amplification on the ability to perceive temporal cues in speech.
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Percepción Auditiva , Umbral Auditivo , Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/fisiopatología , Análisis de Varianza , Niño , Audición/fisiología , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/rehabilitación , Humanos , Persona de Mediana Edad , Valores de ReferenciaRESUMEN
This paper describes forward-masked thresholds for adults with hearing loss. Previous research has demonstrated that the loss of cochlear compression contributes to deficits in this measure of temporal resolution. Cochlear compression can be mimicked with fast-acting compression where the normal dynamic range is mapped to the impaired dynamic range. To test the hypothesis that fast-acting compression will most-closely approximate the normal ability to perceive forward-masked pure-tones, forward-masked thresholds were measured for two groups of adults (normal hearing, hearing loss). Adults with normal hearing were tested without amplification. Adults with hearing loss were tested with three different compression speeds and two different prescriptive procedures using a hearing-aid simulator. The two prescriptive procedures differed in the extent to which the normal dynamic range was mapped onto the impaired dynamic range. When using a faster compression speed with the prescriptive procedure that best restored the lost dynamic range, forward-masked thresholds for the listeners with hearing loss approximated those observed for the listeners with normal hearing.
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Umbral Auditivo/fisiología , Cóclea/fisiopatología , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/fisiopatología , Enmascaramiento Perceptual/fisiología , Estimulación Acústica , Adulto , Estudios de Casos y Controles , Femenino , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/rehabilitación , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Psicoacústica , Desempeño Psicomotor , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Children's performance on psychophysical tasks improves with age. The relationship of spectro-temporal modulation detection to age, particularly in children who are hard of hearing, is not well-established. In this study, children with normal hearing (N = 22) and with sensorineural hearing loss (N = 15) completed measures of spectro-temporal modulation detection. Measures of aided audibility were completed in the children who are hard of hearing. Pearson product-moment correlations were completed with listener age and aided audibility as parameters. Spectro-temporal modulation detection performance increased with listener age and with greater aided audibility.
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Envejecimiento/fisiología , Umbral Auditivo/fisiología , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/fisiopatología , Percepción del Habla/fisiología , Percepción del Tiempo/fisiología , Estimulación Acústica , Niño , Desarrollo Infantil , Señales (Psicología) , Femenino , Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/terapia , Humanos , Masculino , RuidoRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) and other frequency-lowering strategies is to increase the audibility of high-frequency sounds that are not otherwise audible with conventional hearing aid (HA) processing due to the degree of hearing loss, limited HA bandwidth, or a combination of both factors. The aim of the present study was to compare estimates of speech audibility processed by NFC with improvements in speech recognition for a group of children and adults with high-frequency hearing loss. DESIGN: Monosyllabic word recognition was measured in noise for 24 adults and 12 children with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss. Stimuli were amplified based on each listener's audiogram with conventional processing (CP) with amplitude compression or with NFC and presented under headphones using a software-based HA simulator. A modification of the speech intelligibility index (SII) was used to estimate audibility of information in frequency-lowered bands. The mean improvement in SII was compared with the mean improvement in speech recognition. RESULTS: All but 2 listeners experienced improvements in speech recognition with NFC compared with CP, consistent with the small increase in audibility that was estimated using the modification of the SII. Children and adults had similar improvements in speech recognition with NFC. CONCLUSION: Word recognition with NFC was higher than CP for children and adults with mild to severe hearing loss. The average improvement in speech recognition with NFC (7%) was consistent with the modified SII, which indicated that listeners experienced an increase in audibility with NFC compared with CP. Further studies are necessary to determine whether changes in audibility with NFC are related to speech recognition with NFC for listeners with greater degrees of hearing loss, with a greater variety of compression settings, and using auditory training.
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Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva de Alta Frecuencia/rehabilitación , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/rehabilitación , Inteligibilidad del Habla , Percepción del Habla , Adolescente , Adulto , Anciano , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Resultado del Tratamiento , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Previous physiological and psychophysical studies have explored whether feedback to the cochlea from the efferent system influences forward masking. The present work proposes that the limited growth-of-masking (GOM) observed in auditory-nerve (AN) fibers may have been misunderstood; namely, that this limitation may be due to the influence of anesthesia on the efferent system. Building on the premise that the unanesthetized AN may exhibit GOM similar to more central nuclei, the present computational modeling study demonstrates that feedback from the medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferents may contribute to GOM observed physiologically in onset-type neurons in both the cochlear nucleus and inferior colliculus (IC). Additionally, the computational model of MOC efferents used here generates a decrease in masking with longer masker-signal delays similar to that observed in IC physiology and in psychophysical studies. An advantage of this explanation over alternative physiological explanations (e.g., that forward masking requires inhibition from the superior paraolivary nucleus) is that this theory can explain forward masking observed in the brainstem, early in the ascending pathway. For explaining psychoacoustic results, one strength of this model is that it can account for the lack of elevation in thresholds observed when masker level is randomly varied from interval-to-interval, a result that is difficult to explain using the conventional temporal-window model of psychophysical forward masking. Future directions for evaluating the efferent mechanism as a contributing mechanism for psychoacoustic results are discussed.Significance Statement The simulations presented here demonstrate that a recent computational model of the auditory subcortex including medial-olivocochlear efferents generates forward masking, an increase in detection threshold for a short probe tone following a preceding sound. This model explains results from physiological recordings and suggests potential connections to psychoacoustic experiments. The theory that efferent control of cochlear gain is a contributing mechanism for forward masking explains the strength of masking exhibited by cochlear nucleus neurons (not explained by physiological theories in which the strength of forward-masking is increased later in the ascending pathway) and explains results for a psychoacoustic task with random variation in masker level (not explained by the theory that persistent masker energy interferes with detection of the probe).
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OBJECTIVE: Nonlinear frequency compression attempts to restore high-frequency audibility by lowering high-frequency input signals. Methods of determining the optimal parameters that maximize speech understanding have not been evaluated. The effect of maximizing the audible bandwidth on speech recognition for a group of listeners with normal hearing is described. DESIGN: Nonword recognition was measured with 20 normal-hearing adults. Three audiograms with different high-frequency thresholds were used to create conditions with varying high-frequency audibility. Bandwidth was manipulated using three conditions for each audiogram: conventional processing, the manufacturer's default compression parameters, and compression parameters that optimized bandwidth. RESULTS: Nonlinear frequency compression optimized to provide the widest audible bandwidth improved nonword recognition compared with both conventional processing and the default parameters. CONCLUSIONS: These results showed that using the widest audible bandwidth maximized speech identification when using nonlinear frequency compression. Future studies should apply these methods to listeners with hearing loss to demonstrate efficacy in clinical populations.
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Estimulación Acústica/métodos , Percepción del Habla/fisiología , Adulto , Umbral Auditivo , Humanos , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Adults and children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) have trouble understanding speech in rooms with reverberation when using hearing aid amplification. While the use of amplitude compression signal processing in hearing aids may contribute to this difficulty, there is conflicting evidence on the effects of amplitude compression settings on speech recognition. Less clear is the effect of a fast release time for adults and children with SNHL when using compression ratios derived from a prescriptive procedure. PURPOSE: The aim of the study is to determine whether release time impacts speech recognition in reverberation for children and adults with SNHL and to determine if these effects of release time and reverberation can be predicted using indices of audibility or temporal and spectral distortion. RESEARCH DESIGN: This is a quasi-experimental cohort study. Participants used a hearing aid simulator set to the Desired Sensation Level algorithm m[i/o] for three different amplitude compression release times. Reverberation was simulated using three different reverberation times. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 20 children and 16 adults with SNHL. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSES: Participants were seated in a sound-attenuating booth and then nonsense syllable recognition was measured. Predictions of speech recognition were made using indices of audibility, temporal distortion, and spectral distortion and the effects of release time and reverberation were analyzed using linear mixed models. RESULTS: While nonsense syllable recognition decreased in reverberation release time did not significantly affect nonsense syllable recognition. Participants with lower audibility were more susceptible to the negative effect of reverberation on nonsense syllable recognition. CONCLUSION: We have extended previous work on the effects of reverberation on aided speech recognition to children with SNHL. Variations in release time did not impact the understanding of speech. An index of audibility best predicted nonsense syllable recognition in reverberation and, clinically, these results suggest that patients with less audibility are more susceptible to nonsense syllable recognition in reverberation.
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Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural , Percepción del Habla , Adulto , Niño , Estudios de Cohortes , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/rehabilitación , Humanos , HablaRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) lowers high-frequency sounds to a lower frequency and is used to improve high-frequency audibility. However, the efficacy of NFC varies widely-while some individuals benefit from NFC, many do not. Spectral resolution is one factor that might explain individual benefit from NFC. Because individuals with better spectral resolution understand more speech than those with poorer spectral resolution, it was hypothesized that individual benefit from NFC could be predicted from the change in spectral resolution measured with NFC relative to a condition without NFC. PURPOSE: This study aimed to determine the impact of NFC on access to spectral information and whether these changes predict individual benefit from NFC for adults with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). RESEARCH DESIGN: Present study is a quasi-experimental cohort study. Participants used a pair of hearing aids set to the Desired Sensation Level algorithm (DSL m[i/o]). STUDY SAMPLE: Participants were 19 adults with SNHL, recruited from the Boys Town National Research Hospital Participant Registry. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Participants were seated in a sound-attenuating booth and then percent-correct recognition of words, and spectral-ripple discrimination thresholds were measured for two different conditions, with and without NFC. Because audibility is known to influence spectral-ripple thresholds and benefit from NFC, audibility was quantified using the aided speech intelligibility index (SII). Linear mixed models were generated to predict word recognition using the aided SII and spectral-ripple discrimination thresholds. RESULTS: While NFC did not influence percent-correct word recognition, participants with higher (better) aided SII and spectral-ripple discrimination thresholds understood more words than those with either a lower aided SII or spectral-ripple discrimination threshold. Benefit from NFC was not predictable from a participant's aided SII or spectral-ripple discrimination threshold. CONCLUSION: We have extended previous work on the effect of audibility on benefit from NFC to include a measure of spectral resolution, the spectral-ripple discrimination threshold. Clinically, these results suggest that patients with better audibility and spectral resolution will understand speech better than those with poorer audibility or spectral resolution; however, these results are inconsistent with the notion that individual benefit from NFC is predictable from aided audibility or spectral resolution.
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Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural , Percepción del Habla , Adulto , Umbral Auditivo , Estudios de Cohortes , Humanos , Masculino , Inteligibilidad del HablaRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) can improve the audibility of high-frequency sounds by lowering them to a frequency where audibility is better; however, this lowering results in spectral distortion. Consequently, performance is a combination of the effects of increased access to high-frequency sounds and the detrimental effects of spectral distortion. Previous work has demonstrated positive benefits of NFC on speech recognition when NFC is set to improve audibility while minimizing distortion. However, the extent to which NFC impacts listening effort is not well understood, especially for children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). PURPOSE: To examine the impact of NFC on recognition and listening effort for speech in adults and children with SNHL. RESEARCH DESIGN: Within-subject, quasi-experimental study. Participants listened to amplified nonsense words that were (1) frequency-lowered using NFC, (2) low-pass filtered at 5 kHz to simulate the restricted bandwidth (RBW) of conventional hearing aid processing, or (3) low-pass filtered at 10 kHz to simulate extended bandwidth (EBW) amplification. STUDY SAMPLE: Fourteen children (8-16 yr) and 14 adults (19-65 yr) with mild-to-severe SNHL. INTERVENTION: Participants listened to speech processed by a hearing aid simulator that amplified input signals to fit a prescriptive target fitting procedure. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Participants were blinded to the type of processing. Participants' responses to each nonsense word were analyzed for accuracy and verbal-response time (VRT; listening effort). A multivariate analysis of variance and linear mixed model were used to determine the effect of hearing-aid signal processing on nonsense word recognition and VRT. RESULTS: Both children and adults identified the nonsense words and initial consonants better with EBW and NFC than with RBW. The type of processing did not affect the identification of the vowels or final consonants. There was no effect of age on recognition of the nonsense words, initial consonants, medial vowels, or final consonants. VRT did not change significantly with the type of processing or age. CONCLUSION: Both adults and children demonstrated improved speech recognition with access to the high-frequency sounds in speech. Listening effort as measured by VRT was not affected by access to high-frequency sounds.
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Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/fisiopatología , Acústica del Lenguaje , Percepción del Habla/fisiología , Adolescente , Adulto , Anciano , Niño , Audición/fisiología , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/psicología , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/rehabilitación , Humanos , Persona de Mediana Edad , Relación Señal-RuidoRESUMEN
Oceanimonas doudoroffii ATCC 27123T is an obligately aerobic Gram-negative rod of the class Gammaproteobacteria It was first isolated from surface seawater off the coast of Oahu, HI, USA, in 1972. The predicted genome size is 3,832,938 bp (G+C content, 60.03%), which contains 3,524 predicted coding sequences.
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The aerobic phenol-degrading Gram-negative rod Oceanimonas baumannii ATCC 700832T was first isolated from estuary mud from the River Wear, United Kingdom, in 1983. Information on the draft genome sequence for O. baumannii ATCC 700832T is included in this announcement. The predicted genome size is 3,809,332 bp, with 55.88% G+C content.
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BACKGROUND: Sloping hearing loss imposes limits on audibility for high-frequency sounds in many hearing aid users. Signal processing algorithms that shift high-frequency sounds to lower frequencies have been introduced in hearing aids to address this challenge by improving audibility of high-frequency sounds. PURPOSE: This study examined speech perception performance, listening effort, and subjective sound quality ratings with conventional hearing aid processing and a new frequency-lowering signal processing strategy called frequency composition (FC) in adults and children. RESEARCH DESIGN: Participants wore the study hearing aids in two signal processing conditions (conventional processing versus FC) at an initial laboratory visit and subsequently at home during two approximately six-week long trials, with the order of conditions counterbalanced across individuals in a double-blind paradigm. STUDY SAMPLE: Children (N = 12, 7 females, mean age in years = 12.0, SD = 3.0) and adults (N = 12, 6 females, mean age in years = 56.2, SD = 17.6) with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss who were full-time hearing aid users. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSES: Individual performance with each type of processing was assessed using speech perception tasks, a measure of listening effort, and subjective sound quality surveys at an initial visit. At the conclusion of each subsequent at-home trial, participants were retested in the laboratory. Linear mixed effects analyses were completed for each outcome measure with signal processing condition, age group, visit (prehome versus posthome trial), and measures of aided audibility as predictors. RESULTS: Overall, there were few significant differences in speech perception, listening effort, or subjective sound quality between FC and conventional processing, effects of listener age, or longitudinal changes in performance. Listeners preferred FC to conventional processing on one of six subjective sound quality metrics. Better speech perception performance was consistently related to higher aided audibility. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that when high-frequency speech sounds are made audible with conventional processing, speech recognition ability and listening effort are similar between conventional processing and FC. Despite the lack of benefit to speech perception, some listeners still preferred FC, suggesting that qualitative measures should be considered when evaluating candidacy for this signal processing strategy.
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Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/rehabilitación , Acústica del Lenguaje , Percepción del Habla , Estimulación Acústica/métodos , Adulto , Audiometría , Umbral Auditivo , Niño , Método Doble Ciego , Femenino , Pérdida Auditiva Bilateral/rehabilitación , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/fisiopatología , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Relación Señal-RuidoRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Preference for speech and music processed with nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) and two controls (restricted bandwidth [RBW] and extended bandwidth [EBW] hearing aid processing) was examined in adults and children with hearing loss. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if stimulus type (music, sentences), age (children, adults), and degree of hearing loss influence listener preference for NFC, RBW, and EBW. RESEARCH DESIGN: Design was a within-participant, quasi-experimental study. Using a round-robin procedure, participants listened to amplified stimuli that were (1) frequency lowered using NFC, (2) low-pass filtered at 5 kHz to simulate the RBW of conventional hearing aid processing, or (3) low-pass filtered at 11 kHz to simulate EBW amplification. The examiner and participants were blinded to the type of processing. Using a two-alternative forced-choice task, participants selected the preferred music or sentence passage. STUDY SAMPLE: Participants included 16 children (ages 8-16 yr) and 16 adults (ages 19-65 yr) with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss. INTERVENTION: All participants listened to speech and music processed using a hearing aid simulator fit to the Desired Sensation Level algorithm v5.0a. RESULTS: Children and adults did not differ in their preferences. For speech, participants preferred EBW to both NFC and RBW. Participants also preferred NFC to RBW. Preference was not related to the degree of hearing loss. For music, listeners did not show a preference. However, participants with greater hearing loss preferred NFC to RBW more than participants with less hearing loss. Conversely, participants with greater hearing loss were less likely to prefer EBW to RBW. CONCLUSIONS: Both age groups preferred access to high-frequency sounds, as demonstrated by their preference for either the EBW or NFC conditions over the RBW condition. Preference for EBW can be limited for those with greater degrees of hearing loss, but participants with greater hearing loss may be more likely to prefer NFC. Further investigation using participants with more severe hearing loss may be warranted.
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Estimulación Acústica/métodos , Audífonos , Pérdida Auditiva Sensorineural/rehabilitación , Adolescente , Adulto , Anciano , Audiología/instrumentación , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Análisis por Apareamiento , Persona de Mediana Edad , Música , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
PURPOSE: Authors of previous work using laboratory-based paradigms documented that wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) may improve gap detection compared to linear amplification. The purpose of this study was to measure temporal resolution using WDRC fit with compression ratios set for each listener's hearing loss. METHOD: Nineteen adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss fitted with WDRC or linear amplification set to a prescriptive fitting method participated in this study. Subjects detected amplitude modulations and gaps. Two types of noise carrier were used: narrowband (19952005 Hz) and broadband (1008000 Hz). RESULTS: Small differences between WDRC and linear amplification were observed in the measures of temporal resolution. Modulation detection thresholds worsened by a mean of 0.7 dB with WDRC compared to linear amplification. This reduction was observed for both carrier types. Gap detection thresholds did not differ between the 2 amplification conditions. CONCLUSIONS: WDRC set using a prescriptive fitting method with individualized compression ratios had a small but statistically significant effect on measures of modulation thresholds. Differences were not observed between the two amplification conditions for the measures of gap detection. These findings contrast with previous work using fixed compression ratios, suggesting that the effect of the fitting method on the compression ratio should be considered when attempting to generalize the effect of WDRC on temporal resolution to the clinical setting.