Evaluating the role of age on speech-in-noise perception based primarily on temporal envelope information

IF 2.5 2区医学 Q1 AUDIOLOGY & SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY

Hearing Research Pub Date : 2025-03-07 DOI:10.1016/j.heares.2025.109236

Jonathan Regev , Andrew J. Oxenham , Helia Relaño-Iborra , Johannes Zaar , Torsten Dau

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Acoustic amplitude modulation (AM) patterns carry important information, particularly in speech. AM masking, influenced by frequency selectivity in the modulation domain, is considered a crucial factor for speech intelligibility in noisy environments. Based on recent evidence suggesting an age-related decline in AM frequency selectivity, this study investigated whether increased AM masking in older listeners is associated with reduced speech intelligibility. Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured using tone-vocoded speech and maskers with no modulation, broadband AM, or narrowband AM at varying modulation frequencies. AM masked thresholds were assessed for a 4-Hz target modulation frequency. The study included young (N = 14, 19–25 years) and older (N = 14, 57–79 years) listeners with normal hearing. It was hypothesized that SRTs would be higher for the older group with modulated maskers and that the age-related increase in SRT would depend on the masker's modulation frequency content. The speech intelligibility results showed that maskers with broadband AM produced higher SRTs than unmodulated maskers. However, SRTs varied little with masker-modulation center frequency across the range tested (2–32 Hz). While older listeners exhibited lower AM frequency selectivity than young listeners, they did not consistently exhibit higher SRTs than their young counterparts across maskers. However, there was a trend for the effect of age to be greater for maskers with broadband AM than for unmodulated maskers. Overall, despite supportive trends, the results do not conclusively demonstrate that older listeners are more susceptible than young listeners to AM masking of speech.

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来源期刊

Hearing Research 医学-耳鼻喉科学

CiteScore

5.30

自引率

14.30%

发文量

163

审稿时长

75 days

期刊介绍： The aim of the journal is to provide a forum for papers concerned with basic peripheral and central auditory mechanisms. Emphasis is on experimental and clinical studies, but theoretical and methodological papers will also be considered. The journal publishes original research papers, review and mini- review articles, rapid communications, method/protocol and perspective articles. Papers submitted should deal with auditory anatomy, physiology, psychophysics, imaging, modeling and behavioural studies in animals and humans, as well as hearing aids and cochlear implants. Papers dealing with the vestibular system are also considered for publication. Papers on comparative aspects of hearing and on effects of drugs and environmental contaminants on hearing function will also be considered. Clinical papers will be accepted when they contribute to the understanding of normal and pathological hearing functions.