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Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) Jul 2023Μusicians are reported to have enhanced auditory processing. This study aimed to assess auditory perception in Greek musicians with respect to their musical...
Μusicians are reported to have enhanced auditory processing. This study aimed to assess auditory perception in Greek musicians with respect to their musical specialization and to compare their auditory processing with that of non-musicians. Auditory processing elements evaluated were speech recognition in babble, rhythmic advantage in speech recognition, short-term working memory, temporal resolution, and frequency discrimination threshold detection. All groups were of 12 participants. Three distinct experimental groups tested included western classical musicians, Byzantine chanters, and percussionists. The control group consisted of 12 non-musicians. The results revealed: (i) a rhythmic advantage for word recognition in noise for classical musicians ( = 12.42) compared to Byzantine musicians ( = 9.83), as well as for musicians compared to non-musicians ( = 120.50, = 0.019), (ii) better frequency discrimination threshold of Byzantine musicians ( = 3.17, = 0.002) compared to the other two musicians' group for the 2000 Hz region, (iii) statistically significant better working memory for musicians ( = 123.00, = 0.025) compared to non-musicians. Musical training enhances elements of auditory processing and may be used as an additional rehabilitation approach during auditory training, focusing on specific types of music for specific auditory processing deficits.
PubMed: 37510468
DOI: 10.3390/healthcare11142027 -
Audiology Research Jul 2023Tinnitus affects millions of adults. Many therapies, including complementary and alternative medicine and tinnitus retraining therapies, have been trialed, but an...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Tinnitus affects millions of adults. Many therapies, including complementary and alternative medicine and tinnitus retraining therapies, have been trialed, but an effective option, particularly for chronic subjective tinnitus (CTS), is still lacking.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study investigated the effects of alpha-lipoic acid (600 mg. per day for two months) on two groups of patients using a questionnaire. One group (A) was affected by tinnitus associated with likely cochlear dysfunction and metabolic syndrome, and the other (B) was composed of subjects with acoustic nerve lesions. All the patients were asked to complete the Italian version of the tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) to determine the overall degree of perceived annoyance at the beginning and end of therapy. Pure tone averages for speech frequencies and for high frequencies were computed, and psychoacoustic pitch and loudness matches were determined for each subject before and after treatment.
RESULTS
The pure tone audiometry, pitch, loudness, and THI scores of both groups were reported. In group A, statistically significant differences were observed for the "functional" and "emotional" subscales. The total score of THI and the loudness of tinnitus were also significantly reduced. No statistically significant differences were observed in group B.
CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest a possible contribution of the antioxidant effect to the organ of Corti in subjects with metabolic syndrome and CST.
PubMed: 37489379
DOI: 10.3390/audiolres13040043 -
International Journal of Pediatric... Sep 2023To assess the suprathreshold auditory processing and speech recognition abilities in noise in children with specific learning disorder (SLD).
OBJECTIVE
To assess the suprathreshold auditory processing and speech recognition abilities in noise in children with specific learning disorder (SLD).
METHODS
A group of twenty-five children diagnosed with SLD and a control group of twenty-five neuro-typical children were included in the study. All the participants were between 6-11 years old. To evaluate suprathreshold auditory processing abilities, the participants were given the Temporal Fine Structure (TFS) Sensitivity Test and the Temporal Envelope (TE) Sensitivity Test, as well as the Consonant Identification Test, was administered to evaluate speech recognition ability in noise. In addition, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) intelligence test was applied to children with SLD, and the relationship between WISC-IV intelligence test scores in different skills and suprathreshold auditory processing and speech recognition abilities in noise was investigated.
RESULTS
Significant differences were found between children diagnosed with SLD and neuro-typical children in terms of suprathreshold auditory processing tasks and speech recognition in noise. Additionally, no correlation was found between suprathreshold auditory processing tasks, speech recognition in noise, and intelligence tests.
CONCLUSION
Suprathreshold auditory processing and speech recognition abilities in noise were found to be affected in children with SLD. A holistic evaluation including a multidisciplinary approach that includes suprathreshold auditory processing abilities is required for children diagnosed with SLD.
Topics: Child; Humans; Specific Learning Disorder; Auditory Perception; Intelligence Tests
PubMed: 37480808
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2023.111660 -
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics Nov 2023A major barrier to the clinical application of psychophysical testing of central auditory processes is the time required to obtain precise estimates of different...
A major barrier to the clinical application of psychophysical testing of central auditory processes is the time required to obtain precise estimates of different listening abilities. In this study, we validate a novel adaptive scan (AS) method of threshold estimation that is designed to adapt on a range of values around threshold rather than on a single threshold value. This method has the advantage of providing the listener with greater familiarity with the stimulus characteristics near threshold while maintaining precise measurement and increasing time-efficiency. Additionally, we explore the time-efficiency of AS through comparison with two more conventional adaptive algorithms and the method of constant stimuli in two common psychophysical tasks: the detection of a gap in noise and the detection of a tone in noise. Seventy undergraduates without hearing complaints were tested using all four methods. The AS method provided similar threshold estimates with similar precision to those from the other adaptive methods and, thus, it is a valid adaptive method of psychophysical testing. We also provide an analysis of the AS method based on precision metrics to propose a shortened version of the algorithm that maximizes the time/precision tradeoff and can achieve similar thresholds to the adaptive methods tested in the validation. This work lays the foundation for using AS across a wide variety of psychophysical assessments and experimental situations where different levels of precision and/or time-efficiency may be required.
Topics: Humans; Auditory Threshold; Psychoacoustics; Noise; Time Factors; Algorithms
PubMed: 37349625
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02743-z -
Behavior Research Methods Mar 2024Anonymous web-based experiments are increasingly used in many domains of behavioral research. However, online studies of auditory perception, especially of... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Anonymous web-based experiments are increasingly used in many domains of behavioral research. However, online studies of auditory perception, especially of psychoacoustic phenomena pertaining to low-level sensory processing, are challenging because of limited available control of the acoustics, and the inability to perform audiometry to confirm normal-hearing status of participants. Here, we outline our approach to mitigate these challenges and validate our procedures by comparing web-based measurements to lab-based data on a range of classic psychoacoustic tasks. Individual tasks were created using jsPsych, an open-source JavaScript front-end library. Dynamic sequences of psychoacoustic tasks were implemented using Django, an open-source library for web applications, and combined with consent pages, questionnaires, and debriefing pages. Subjects were recruited via Prolific, a subject recruitment platform for web-based studies. Guided by a meta-analysis of lab-based data, we developed and validated a screening procedure to select participants for (putative) normal-hearing status based on their responses in a suprathreshold task and a survey. Headphone use was standardized by supplementing procedures from prior literature with a binaural hearing task. Individuals meeting all criteria were re-invited to complete a range of classic psychoacoustic tasks. For the re-invited participants, absolute thresholds were in excellent agreement with lab-based data for fundamental frequency discrimination, gap detection, and sensitivity to interaural time delay and level difference. Furthermore, word identification scores, consonant confusion patterns, and co-modulation masking release effect also matched lab-based studies. Our results suggest that web-based psychoacoustics is a viable complement to lab-based research. Source code for our infrastructure is provided.
Topics: Humans; Psychoacoustics; Hearing; Auditory Perception; Audiometry; Internet; Auditory Threshold; Acoustic Stimulation
PubMed: 37326771
DOI: 10.3758/s13428-023-02101-9 -
Ear and HearingUnderstanding speech-in-noise (SiN) is a complex task that recruits multiple cortical subsystems. Individuals vary in their ability to understand SiN. This cannot be...
OBJECTIVES
Understanding speech-in-noise (SiN) is a complex task that recruits multiple cortical subsystems. Individuals vary in their ability to understand SiN. This cannot be explained by simple peripheral hearing profiles, but recent work by our group ( Kim et al. 2021 , Neuroimage ) highlighted central neural factors underlying the variance in SiN ability in normal hearing (NH) subjects. The present study examined neural predictors of SiN ability in a large cohort of cochlear-implant (CI) users.
DESIGN
We recorded electroencephalography in 114 postlingually deafened CI users while they completed the California consonant test: a word-in-noise task. In many subjects, data were also collected on two other commonly used clinical measures of speech perception: a word-in-quiet task (consonant-nucleus-consonant) word and a sentence-in-noise task (AzBio sentences). Neural activity was assessed at a vertex electrode (Cz), which could help maximize eventual generalizability to clinical situations. The N1-P2 complex of event-related potentials (ERPs) at this location were included in multiple linear regression analyses, along with several other demographic and hearing factors as predictors of SiN performance.
RESULTS
In general, there was a good agreement between the scores on the three speech perception tasks. ERP amplitudes did not predict AzBio performance, which was predicted by the duration of device use, low-frequency hearing thresholds, and age. However, ERP amplitudes were strong predictors for performance for both word recognition tasks: the California consonant test (which was conducted simultaneously with electroencephalography recording) and the consonant-nucleus-consonant (conducted offline). These correlations held even after accounting for known predictors of performance including residual low-frequency hearing thresholds. In CI-users, better performance was predicted by an increased cortical response to the target word, in contrast to previous reports in normal-hearing subjects in whom speech perception ability was accounted for by the ability to suppress noise.
CONCLUSIONS
These data indicate a neurophysiological correlate of SiN performance, thereby revealing a richer profile of an individual's hearing performance than shown by psychoacoustic measures alone. These results also highlight important differences between sentence and word recognition measures of performance and suggest that individual differences in these measures may be underwritten by different mechanisms. Finally, the contrast with prior reports of NH listeners in the same task suggests CI-users performance may be explained by a different weighting of neural processes than NH listeners.
Topics: Humans; Cochlear Implants; Speech; Individuality; Cochlear Implantation; Noise; Speech Perception
PubMed: 37144890
DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001357 -
Ear and HearingThe aim of the study was to review the demographic and clinical characteristics of all pediatric patients diagnosed with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) by...
OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study was to review the demographic and clinical characteristics of all pediatric patients diagnosed with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) by a pediatric health care system from 2005 to 2020 and examine whether or not our diagnostic capabilities in an ANSD population have evolved as our institutional experience has grown and knowledge in the field has expanded.
DESIGN
This was a retrospective study reviewing the demographic data, medical history, imaging studies, audiological and speech-language data, type of audiological intervention and mode of communication in 260 pediatric patients diagnosed with ANSD over a 15-year period.
RESULTS
The study revealed that male and female children were equally affected with all levels of hearing detection being represented and that about 40% of affected children were premature and most were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. More than a third of our patients presented with a complex medical history and/or neural involvement while about 30% were full-term newborns with normal pregnancy, no prenatal complications or infections, normal birth weight, no neonatal intensive care unit need, no hyperbilirubinemia, no respiratory distress requiring ventilation, and no known syndrome. Review of audiological findings confirms that otoacoustic emissions are not always present in ANSD cases, and that the presence of an abnormal wave V on the auditory brainstem response tracings (only present at high intensities and with an absent intensity/latency function) is not a rare finding and should not immediately be dismissed as not being a case of ANSD.
CONCLUSIONS
This review of ANSD diagnosis over a 15-year period clearly reveals the drastic improvements made in the identification of ANSD, with a drastic decrease in the age at diagnosis and a reduction in the percentage of misdiagnosed patients. The study also stresses the need for continued improvement in different areas such as genetic studies and physiological measures to help clinicians distinguish between pre- and postsynaptic ANSD.
Topics: Child; Female; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Male; Demography; Hearing; Hearing Loss, Central; Retrospective Studies
PubMed: 37036288
DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001337 -
Ear and HearingFollowing a review of the demographic and clinical characteristics of all pediatric patients diagnosed with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) by a pediatric...
OBJECTIVES
Following a review of the demographic and clinical characteristics of all pediatric patients diagnosed with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) by a pediatric health care system from 2005 to 2020, the present report highlights the type and timing of intervention and outcomes in the same 260 patients with ANSD.
DESIGN
This was a retrospective study reviewing the demographic data, medical history, imaging studies, audiological and speech language data, type of audiological intervention (hearing aids or cochlear implants), and mode of communication in 260 pediatric patients diagnosed with ANSD over a 15-year period.
RESULTS
A significant decrease over time in the age at hearing aid fitting was observed. While a similar reduction in the age at implantation occurred over time, cochlear implantation is still rarely performed by 12 months of age in most ANSD patients. Among bilateral ANSD patients fitted with hearing aids, the majority (89.2%) did not benefit from conventional amplification and most received cochlear implants. Some hearing aid benefit for speech and language development was observed in 5.8%, though communication difficulties were persistent and most used a combination of oral and sign language for communication. Only six patients (5%) received significant benefit from their hearing aids for speech and language development.
CONCLUSIONS
This review of ANSD management over a 15-year period reveals that hearing aids are not a viable option to develop speech and language for most infants and children with ANSD. This finding confirms previous reports and suggest that while hearing aid trials are warranted, children must be tracked closely so as to avoid delays in decision making. Cochlear implantation constitutes the major (if not only) rehabilitative intervention that allows for speech perception in patients who do not benefit from conventional amplification.
Topics: Child; Humans; Infant; Cochlear Implantation; Cochlear Implants; Hearing Aids; Hearing Loss, Central; Retrospective Studies; Speech Perception
PubMed: 37036283
DOI: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001366 -
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics Nov 2023Auditory localization plays an essential role in various tasks, including spatial orientation, locomotion, attention and memory. Optimization of experimental routine is...
Auditory localization plays an essential role in various tasks, including spatial orientation, locomotion, attention and memory. Optimization of experimental routine is important for preliminary assessment of the subject's sound localization ability. In the present study, a new quick technique for estimating the relative minimum audible distance (RMAD) using sound images is introduced. Twenty adults with normal hearing took part in six RMAD measurements in free field. The reference RMAD values were obtained using a method of constant stimuli by physically positioning a real sound source. The same method was used with stationary sound images created by superposition of signals emitted by two loudspeakers. To optimize the measurements, the RMADs were determined for the sound images using two adaptive psychoacoustic procedures known as one-down, one-up and two-down, one-up staircases. The group-average RMADs obtained by the method of constant stimuli for both types of stimuli and by two adaptive procedures were similar, 7% (SD = 2%). The effect of whether subjects were sighted or blindfolded was not significant for measurements of RMAD to sound images. The average measurement times were 373 s (SD = 20 s) for the method of constant stimuli, 85 s (SD = 9 s) for the one-down, one-up, and 124 s (SD = 14 s) for the two-down, one-up procedure. The results are consistent with the previous studies and confirm the validity of the measurements of RMAD using adaptive procedures with stationary sound images as a quick method.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Sound Localization; Sound; Psychoacoustics; Hearing Tests; Space Perception
PubMed: 36949259
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02663-y -
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Aug 2023This study sought to determine whether rap expertise is associated with enhanced knowledge of psychoacoustic similarity. Using a stimulus composed of pseudo-word...
This study sought to determine whether rap expertise is associated with enhanced knowledge of psychoacoustic similarity. Using a stimulus composed of pseudo-word assonantal half-rhyme triplets (e.g., freet/speet//yeek), expert improvisational rap lyricists were compared to laypersons (non-lyricists) in their judgments of half-rhyme acceptability. According to both a perception-based and a linguistic feature-based measure of psychoacoustic similarity, lyricists were distinct from non-lyricists in the rates at which they found half-rhymes acceptable, and in how group responses were correlated with the similarity measures. Data indicate that, compared to non-lyricists, lyricists' half-rhyme acceptance rates are more highly correlated with linguistic features that have more robust perceptual cues. Evidence suggests that lyricists and non-lyricists employ different strategies for determining the acceptability of half-rhymes, and that lyricists might be more sensitive or attuned to similar aspects of speech sounds.
Topics: Humans; Psychoacoustics; Judgment; Phonetics; Cues; Speech Perception
PubMed: 36929042
DOI: 10.1007/s10936-023-09932-9