Abstract
Many tinnitus patients report difficulties understanding speech in noise or competing talkers, despite having “normal” hearing in terms of audiometric thresholds. The interference caused by tinnitus is more likely central in origin. Release from informational masking (more central in origin) produced by competing speech may further illuminate central interference due to tinnitus. In the present study, masked speech understanding was measured in normal hearing listeners with or without tinnitus. Speech recognition thresholds were measured for target speech in the presence of multi-talker babble or competing speech. For competing speech, speech recognition thresholds were measured for different cue conditions (i.e., with and without target-masker sex differences and/or with and without spatial cues). The present data suggest that tinnitus negatively affected masked speech recognition even in individuals with no measurable hearing loss. Tinnitus severity appeared to especially limit listeners’ ability to segregate competing speech using talker sex differences. The data suggest that increased informational masking via lexical interference may tax tinnitus patients’ central auditory processing resources.
Highlights
Many tinnitus patients report difficulties understanding speech in noise or competing talkers, despite having “normal” hearing in terms of audiometric thresholds
While there was no significant difference in thresholds with the unmodulated masker between the tinnitus and non-tinnitus group, thresholds with the co-modulated masker were significantly higher for the tinnitus group, and co-modulation release from masking was significantly poorer for the tinnitus group. These results suggest that, compared to normal hearing (NH) listeners without tinnitus, NH listeners with tinnitus may experience greater envelope interference and informational masking beyond the periphery
While there was no significant difference in speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) across speaking rates in the non-tinnitus group, SRTs in the tinnitus group were significantly higher with the fast rate than with the normal rate
Summary
Segregation of competing speech may require more attention[29] as listeners may confuse competing speech signals with the signal of interest. While there was no significant difference in thresholds with the unmodulated masker between the tinnitus and non-tinnitus group, thresholds with the co-modulated masker were significantly higher for the tinnitus group, and co-modulation release from masking was significantly poorer for the tinnitus group These results suggest that, compared to NH listeners without tinnitus, NH listeners with tinnitus may experience greater envelope interference and informational masking beyond the periphery. Kidd et al.[37] found large masking release (MR) due to the difference in talker sex cues and/or spatial cues, which is primarily driven by the reduction in the informational masking, especially with 2-talker competing maskers It is unclear whether tinnitus will affect the use of these segregation cues (talker-sex and/or spatial cues) on MR and the effects of tinnitus may differ in maskers with primarily energetic or envelope masking (e.g., steady noise or multi-talker speech babble) and in maskers with primarily informational masking (e.g., 2-talker competing speech). Tinnitus severity was measured using a visual analog scale[38] (VAS) and the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory[39] (THI); linear regression analyses were performed between tinnitus severity and SRTs
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