Gender effect on Psychoacoustical abilities and Speech perception in noise in individuals with Sickle cell anemia.

Background: Sickle cell anemia (SCA), a genetic hemoglobin disorder, suggests essential inner ear compromise and poor auditory processing. In humans, auditory processing differs physiologically between males and females, possibly true for SCA due to gender-specific disease pathophysiological changes.

Objective: To investigate gender differences in psychoacoustical abilities, and speech perception in noise in SCA individuals and further compare with normal healthy (NH) population.

Methods: 80 SCA and 80 NH normal-hearing participants aged 15-40 years were included and further grouped based on gender. Auditory discrimination for frequency, intensity, and duration at 500Hz and 4000Hz; temporal processing (Gap detection threshold & Modulation Detection Threshold) and Speech Perception In Noise (SPIN) at 0dBSNR tests were evaluated and compared between males and females of SCA and NH population.

Results: SCA performed poorer compared to NH for all experimental measures. In the NH population, males performed poorer than females in psychoacoustical measures whereas within the SCA population, the reverse was true. Female participants performed better in the SPIN test in both populations.

Conclusions: The adverse impact of SCA on the auditory system due to circulatory changes might cause poorer performance in SCA. Poorer performance by Female SCA is possibly due to the contrary impact of lower Hb level overlying Sickle disease. Estrogen levels and gender preference in auditory processing might lead to better performance by females within the NH population. SPIN performance depends on different attentional demands and sensorimotor processing strategies in noise beyond psychoacoustical processing may lead to better female performance in both populations.