December 2009 - Volume 30 - Issue 6 : Ear and Hearing

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December 2009 - Volume 30 - Issue 6

pp: 635-715

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Research Articles

Sound-Conduction Effects on Distortion-Product Otoacoustic Emission Screening Outcomes in Newborn Infants: Test Performance of Wideband Acoustic Transfer Functions and 1-kHz Tympanometry

Sanford, Chris A.; Keefe, Douglas H.; Liu, Yi-Wen; More

Sanford, Chris A.; Keefe, Douglas H.; Liu, Yi-Wen; Fitzpatrick, Denis; McCreery, Ryan W.; Lewis, Dawna E.; Gorga, Michael P. Less

Ear and Hearing. 30(6):635-652, December 2009.

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Test performance of wideband (WB) acoustic transfer functions and 1-kHz tympanometry was assessed in terms of ability to classify ears that passed or were referred on the basis of a distortion-product otoacoustic emission newborn hearing screening (NHS) test. WB tests had better performance in classifying NHS outcomes than any 1-kHz tympanometry test. In general, infants who passed the NHS test had higher energy absorbance compared with those who were referred, indicating that passed ears were more efficient at transferring acoustic energy into the middle ear. These results show that WB acoustic measurements provide accurate predictions regarding sound conduction effects on neonatal distortion-product otoacoustic emission screening outcomes.

Musician Enhancement for Speech-In-Noise

Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; Skoe, Erika; Lam, Carrie; More

Parbery-Clark, Alexandra; Skoe, Erika; Lam, Carrie; Kraus, Nina Less

Ear and Hearing. 30(6):653-661, December 2009.

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This study investigated the effect of musical training on understanding speech-in-noise (SIN), a complex task requiring the integration of working memory and stream segregation, and the detection of time-varying perceptual cues. Previous work in SIN has focused on populations who experience difficulty in noise, but not auditory experts. Musicians outperformed nonmusicians on SIN measures, which may be derived in part by musicians' enhanced working memory and frequency discrimination. Furthermore, SIN performance (QuickSIN), working memory, and frequency discrimination were positively correlated with years of musical practice. Results are consistent with the notion that training in one domain (music) can transfer to another (speech) and provide insight into factors that positively impact speech perception in noise, possibly leading to more effective remediation strategies for clinical populations.

Transfer of Auditory Perceptual Learning with Spectrally Reduced Speech to Speech and Nonspeech Tasks: Implications for Cochlear Implants

Loebach, Jeremy L.; Pisoni, David B.; Svirsky, Mario A.

Loebach, Jeremy L.; Pisoni, David B.; Svirsky, Mario A. Less

Ear and Hearing. 30(6):662-674, December 2009.

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This study assessed whether training on speech processed with an eight-channel noise vocoder transfers to a variety of nonlinguistic tasks (environmental sound identification, talker-gender identification, and talker discrimination). Subjects who were trained by transcribing vocoded sentences performed better significantly at post-test and demonstrated larger gains from training than those in a control group. Both groups performed equally well on gender identification and talker discrimination. However, subjects who transcribed vocoded sentences during training performed better significantly on environmental sound identification than the control subjects. These results have implications for aural rehabilitation after cochlear implantation.

Temporal Auditory and Visual Motion Processing of Children Diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder and Dyslexia

Dawes, Piers; Sirimanna, Tony; Burton, Martin; More

Dawes, Piers; Sirimanna, Tony; Burton, Martin; Vanniasegaram, Iynga; Tweedy, Frances; Bishop, Dorothy V. M. Less

Ear and Hearing. 30(6):675-686, December 2009.

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This study investigated the hypothesis that the cause of auditory processing disorder (APD) is a modality-specific impairment of temporal auditory processing. The study also considered how far the auditory impairments in APD differ from those in dyslexia. Typically, developing children (N = 98) and those with APD (N = 22) and dyslexia (N = 19) completed a battery of temporal auditory (2-Hz FM, 40-Hz FM, 240-Hz FM, and iterated rippled noise) and visual (form and motion detection) psychophysical tests. The APD group performed worse than the normative group, but there was no difference between the APD and dyslexia groups and no evidence of a specific temporal auditory impairment.

Auditory N1 Component to Gaps in Continuous Narrowband Noises

Atcherson, Samuel R.; Gould, Herbert Jay; Mendel, Maurice I.; More

Atcherson, Samuel R.; Gould, Herbert Jay; Mendel, Maurice I.; Ethington, Corrina A. Less

Ear and Hearing. 30(6):687-695, December 2009.

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The evoked auditory N1 component to gaps in three different continuous narrowband noises was described for a group of young-adult listeners and compared with the results of a modified Békésy gap detection task using identical stimuli. N1 component grand averages suggest that gap thresholds can be obtained at 10 msec with center frequencies of 1 and 4 kHz, but a gap of 20 msec was necessary at 0.5 kHz. At 1 and 4 kHz, results between the two measures were similar but not at 0.5 kHz. Noise bandwidth and behavioral detection of spectral splatter likely explain differences at 0.5 kHz.

Notched Audiograms and Noise Exposure History in Older Adults

Nondahl, David M.; Shi, Xiaoyu; Cruickshanks, Karen J.; More

Nondahl, David M.; Shi, Xiaoyu; Cruickshanks, Karen J.; Dalton, Dayna S.; Tweed, Ted S.; Wiley, Terry L.; Carmichael, Lakeesha L. Less

Ear and Hearing. 30(6):696-703, December 2009.

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Using data from a population-based cohort study (N = 2395), we compared four published algorithms for identifying notched audiograms and compared their resulting classifications with noise exposure history. The prevalence of notched audiograms varied greatly by definition. Among participants with a notched audiogram, almost one-third did not have a history of occupational noise exposure, and ∼11% did not have a history of noise exposure. These results suggest that there is a poor agreement across algorithms for audiometric notches. In addition, notches can occur without a positive noise history. Researchers should be cautious about classifying noise-induced hearing loss by notched audiograms.

Contribution of Spectrotemporal Features on Auditory Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Consonant-Vowel Syllables

Digeser, Frank Michael; Wohlberedt, Torsten; Hoppe, Ulrich

Digeser, Frank Michael; Wohlberedt, Torsten; Hoppe, Ulrich Less

Ear and Hearing. 30(6):704-712, December 2009.

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This study examined the influence of spectrotemporal properties of naturally produced consonant-vowel syllables /da/ and /ta/ on speech-evoked auditory event-related potentials. It was shown that even small differences in spectrotemporal features may evoke different potentials, although the wide-band envelopes of the stimuli were very similar or even identical. Observed parameter differences were attributed to different spectrotemporal content in the consonant parts of the original syllables by investigating isolated consonants, isolated vowels, and stimuli with removed spectrotemporal information. The presented measurements might be used for clinical identification of problems in phoneme differentiation caused by spectrotemporal analysis problems.

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Does the 40-Hz Auditory Steady-State Response Show the Binaural Masking Level Difference?

Ishida, Ieda Maria; Stapells, David R.

Ishida, Ieda Maria; Stapells, David R. Less

Ear and Hearing. 30(6):713-715, December 2009.

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In contrast to the transient (N1-P2) and steady-state (<20 Hz) cortical responses, neither the transient nor the steady-state (80 Hz) brain stem responses show the binaural masking level difference (BMLD). This study determined behavioral and 40-Hz auditory steady-state response (ASSR) BMLDs for both signal and noise interaural inversions. Results showed clear behavioral BMLD but no 40-Hz ASSR BMLD. However, ASSR amplitudes were significantly smaller in dichotic compared with diotic conditions. Thus, although 40-Hz ASSR thresholds do not reflect the BMLD, the amplitude suppression under dichotic conditions may be a precursor to the subsequent <20-Hz ASSR and behavioral BMLDs.

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Table of Contents Sections

Research Articles
Brief Report

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Research Articles

Sound-Conduction Effects on Distortion-Product Otoacoustic Emission Screening Outcomes in Newborn Infants: Test Performance of Wideband Acoustic Transfer Functions and 1-kHz Tympanometry

In Brief:

Musician Enhancement for Speech-In-Noise

In Brief:

Transfer of Auditory Perceptual Learning with Spectrally Reduced Speech to Speech and Nonspeech Tasks: Implications for Cochlear Implants

In Brief:

Temporal Auditory and Visual Motion Processing of Children Diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder and Dyslexia

In Brief:

Auditory N1 Component to Gaps in Continuous Narrowband Noises

In Brief:

Notched Audiograms and Noise Exposure History in Older Adults

In Brief:

Contribution of Spectrotemporal Features on Auditory Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Consonant-Vowel Syllables

In Brief:

Brief Report

Does the 40-Hz Auditory Steady-State Response Show the Binaural Masking Level Difference?

In Brief: