Perception of roughness by people with normal hearing and sensorineural hearing loss

Abstract

Anecdotal and laboratory evidence indicates that many people with sensorineural hearing loss have difficulty perceiving music clearly, even when the musical sounds are loud enough to be audible, or are amplified through hearing aids. A better understanding of the music perception difficulties faced by hearing-impaired people is required in order to improve assistive listening technology for music listening, performance, and appreciation. One important aspect of music appreciation is the perception of dissonance between combinations of tones (e.g., the tritone). A recent study [J. B. Tufts, M. R. Molis, and M. R. Leek, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 118, 955–967 (2005)] showed that people with sensorineural hearing loss perceive differences in musical dissonance to be less salient than do normal-hearing people. Various acoustic and perceptual factors contribute to musical dissonance, but one of the most important is auditory roughness. In the present study, roughness regions for amplitude-modulated tones at several carrier frequencies, two different modulation depths, and several presentation levels were established using magnitude estimation techniques in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. Differences in the perception of roughness between the listener groups will be discussed with regard to implications for music perception in people with sensorineural hearing loss.