Evaluation of Temporal Processing Abilities in Competing Noise.

Abstract

Temporal processing is critical to a wide variety of everyday listening tasks, including speech perception. Although the importance of signal to noise ratio (SNR) is well documented in speech perception experiments, it is less explored in temporal processing experiments. The present study examined the effect of SNR on temporal processing abilities using Gap Detection Threshold (GDT) in children and adults. The study included a total of 45 subjects, where in, 25 children (Group-1) and 20 adults (Group-2) with pure-tone thresholds ranging from 0 to 25dB HL at frequency range 250-8000Hz. The GDT was measured at presentation level 50 dBSL. All the measurements were performed in 5 different conditions: 'Quiet', ' + 10dB SNR', ' + 5dB SNR', ' + 0dB SNR' and ' - 5dB SNR'. Gap Detection Thresholds are significantly higher from + 10 to - 5dB SNR when compared to quiet condition in young-adults and all sub-groups of children, whereas at + 10dB SNR, thresholds were not significantly different from quiet condition in young-adults and all sub-groups of children except for sub-group A of children, and were significantly different for all the five conditions. It was revealed that, as the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was decreased from + 10dB SNR to 0dB SNR there was a significant increase in Gap Detection Thresholds. There was a significant increase in Gap Detection Thresholds from + 10dB SNR to - 5dB SNR in both children and adults. The results also suggest that the performance on temporal processing task in the presence of background noise achieves young-adult like pattern by the age of 10-11years. Background noise affect temporal processing in both children and young-adults. Background noise impairs temporal processing in children more than the adults, which could be because of poor temporal resolving abilities in children.