Speech Understanding With Various Maskers in Cochlear-Implant and Simulated Cochlear-Implant Hearing: Effects of Spectral Resolution and Implications for Masking Release
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between psychophysical spectral resolution and sentence reception in various types of interfering backgrounds for listeners with cochlear implants and normal-hearing subjects listening to vocoded speech. Spectral resolution was measured with a spectral modulation detection (SMD) task. For speech testing, maskers included stationary speech-shaped noise (SSN), four-talker babble, multitone noise, and a competing talker. To explore the possible trade-offs between spectral resolution and susceptibility to different types of maskers, the degree of simulated current spread was varied within the vocoder group, achieving a range of performance for SMD and speech tasks. Greater simulated current spread was detrimental to both spectral resolution and speech recognition, suggesting that interventions that decrease current spread may improve performance for both tasks. Better SMD sensitivity was significantly correlated with improved sentence reception. In addition, differences in sentence reception across the four maskers were significantly associated with SMD across the combined group of cochlear-implant and vocoder subjects. Masking release (MR) was quantified as the signal-t...Continue Reading
References
Citations
Software Mentioned
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Auditory Perception
Auditory perception is the ability to receive and interpret information attained by the ears. Here is the latest research on factors and underlying mechanisms that influence auditory perception.