Auditory Speech Recognition Research Articles

Influence of Speech Rate on Auditory Recognition in Cochlear Implant Users

Introduction: This study aimed to verify the influence of speech stimulus presentation and speed on auditory recognition in cochlear implant (CI) users with poorer performance. Methods: The cross-sectional observational study applied auditory speech perception tests to fifteen adults, using three different ways of presenting the stimulus, in the absence of competitive noise: monitored live voice (MLV); recorded speech at typical speed (RSTS); recorded speech at slow speed (RSSS). The scores were assessed using the Percent Sentence Recognition Index (PSRI). The data were inferentially analysed using the Friedman and Wilcoxon tests with a 95% confidence interval and 5% significance level (p < 0.05). Results: The mean age was 41.1 years, the mean duration of CI use was 11.4 years, and the mean hearing threshold was 29.7 ± 5.9 dBHL. Test performance, as determined by the PSRI, was MLV = 42.4 ± 17.9%; RSTS = 20.3 ± 14.3%; RSSS = 40.6 ± 20.7%. There was a significant difference identified for RSTS compared to MLV and RSSS. Conclusion: The way the stimulus is presented and the speed at which it is presented enable greater auditory speech recognition in CI users, thus favouring comprehension when the tests are applied in the MLV and RSSS modalities.

Computer-based Auditory Training by New Adult Cochlear Implant Recipients Is Associated With Durable Improvements in Cochlear Implant Quality of Life.

The process of adapting to communicate with a cochlear implant (CI) is complex. The use of auditory training after cochlear implantation may help to facilitate improvements in postoperative speech recognition and quality-of-life outcomes in new adult CI recipients. However, the effectiveness of auditory training remains uncertain and long-term effects have not been examined in a large sample of new adult CI users. As such, the objective of this study was to examine the influence of common forms of auditory training on speech recognition and CI-related quality-of-life (CI-related QOL) outcomes at 1 year after cochlear implantation. We hypothesized that patients who reported use of computer-based auditory training (CBAT) would show improved speech and CIQOL-35 Profile scores at 1 year after activation of their implant, compared with their peers. This study was designed as a prospective study and was undertaken at a tertiary academic CI center. Participants included 114 adults undergoing cochlear implantation for bilateral hearing loss. Patients serially self-reported use of the following types of post-CI auditory training over their first-year postactivation: (1) face-to-face training (e.g., speech-language pathologist), (2) passive home-based training (e.g., listening to audiobooks), and (3) CBAT (e.g., self-directed software). Outcomes measures for this study included change in Consonant-Nucleus-Consonant phoneme (CNCp), CNC word (CNCw), AzBio sentences in quiet, and CIQOL-35 Profile global and domain scores from pre-CI to 12-mo post-CI. Of 114 patients, 94 (82.5%) used one or more auditory training resources. Of these, 19.3% used face-to-face training, 67.5% passive home-based training, and 46.5% CBAT. Of 114 patients, 73 had complete CIQOL data. At 12 mo, only CBAT use was associated with significantly greater improvements in global and all domain-specific CIQOL scores ( d -range = 0.72-0.87), compared with those not using CBAT. Controlling for demographics and use of multiple training resources, CBAT remained the strongest positive predictor of CIQOL improvement, with significant associations with global score (ß = 12.019[4.127,19.9]) and all domain scores at 12-mo post-CI: communication (ß = 11.937[2.456,21.318), emotional (ß = 12.293[1.827,22.759), entertainment (ß = 17.014[5.434,28.774), environment (ß = 13.771[1.814,25.727]), listening effort (ß = 12.523[2.798,22.248]), and social (ß = 18.114[7.403,28.826]). No significant benefits were noted with use of CBAT or any other form of auditory training and speech recognition scores at 12-mo post-CI ( d -range = -0.12-0.22). Auditory training with CBAT was associated with improved CI-related QOL outcomes at 12-mo post-CI. Given its availability and low cost, this study provides evidence to support using CBAT to improve real-world functional abilities in new adult CI recipients.

Competing influence of visual speech on auditory neural adaptation

Visual information from a speaker’s face enhances auditory neural processing and speech recognition. To determine whether auditory memory can be influenced by visual speech, the degree of auditory neural adaptation of an auditory syllable preceded by an auditory, visual, or audiovisual syllable was examined using EEG. Consistent with previous findings and additional adaptation of auditory neurons tuned to acoustic features, stronger adaptation of N1, P2 and N2 auditory evoked responses was observed when the auditory syllable was preceded by an auditory compared to a visual syllable. However, although stronger than when preceded by a visual syllable, lower adaptation was observed when the auditory syllable was preceded by an audiovisual compared to an auditory syllable. In addition, longer N1 and P2 latencies were then observed. These results further demonstrate that visual speech acts on auditory memory but suggest competing visual influences in the case of audiovisual stimulation.

The role of suprathreshold auditory processing abilities in children with specific learning disorder.

To assess the suprathreshold auditory processing and speech recognition abilities in noise in children with specific learning disorder (SLD). A group of twenty-five children diagnosed with SLD and a control group of twenty-five neuro-typical children were included in the study. All the participants were between 6-11 years old. To evaluate suprathreshold auditory processing abilities, the participants were given the Temporal Fine Structure (TFS) Sensitivity Test and the Temporal Envelope (TE) Sensitivity Test, as well as the Consonant Identification Test, was administered to evaluate speech recognition ability in noise. In addition, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) intelligence test was applied to children with SLD, and the relationship between WISC-IV intelligence test scores in different skills and suprathreshold auditory processing and speech recognition abilities in noise was investigated. Significant differences were found between children diagnosed with SLD and neuro-typical children in terms of suprathreshold auditory processing tasks and speech recognition in noise. Additionally, no correlation was found between suprathreshold auditory processing tasks, speech recognition in noise, and intelligence tests. Suprathreshold auditory processing and speech recognition abilities in noise were found to be affected in children with SLD. A holistic evaluation including a multidisciplinary approach that includes suprathreshold auditory processing abilities is required for children diagnosed with SLD.

Temporal Auditory Processing, Speech Recognition, and P300 in Adults with Opioid Use Disorders Attributed to Tramadol

Background: Tramadol is a centrally acting opioid with an analgesic effect. Prolonged chronic pain management with tramadol and tramadol misuse may cause opioid use disorder attributed to tramadol (OUD-T). Evidence from pathophysiologic mechanisms of OUD-T raised the probability for central auditory processing abnormalities. Objectives: To our knowledge, no available studies evaluate the underlying pathology. Consequently, this study was designed to evaluate speech recognition, auditory temporal processing, auditory neurocognitive function in these patients. Materials and Methods: This work comprised a study group of 19 males with OUD-T and a control group of 19 participants, both with an age range of 20-40 years. All participants were subjected to (1) basic audiological evaluation, (2) psychoacoustic central auditory tests to assess auditory figure ground (speech intelligibility in noise) and temporal processing (Gaps-In-Noise and pitch pattern sequence), and (3) P300 neurocognitive potential. Results: OUD-T showed statistical significant depressed scores of speech in noise and pitch pattern sequence tests in comparison to the control group. In addition a statistically significant elevated GIN test approximate threshold and depressed total score was present in OUD-T. As regards P300, there was statistically significant difference between the control and the study group in latency and amplitude. Conclusion: These findings emphasize the importance of speech in noise, temporal processing, and neurocognitive evaluation in adults with opioid use disorder attributed to tramadol.

Phonetic versus spatial processes during motor-oriented imitations of visuo-labial and visuo-lingual speech: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

While a large amount of research has studied the facilitation of visual speech on auditory speech recognition, few have investigated the processing of visual speech gestures in motor-oriented tasks that focus on the spatial and motor features of the articulator actions instead of the phonetic features of auditory and visual speech. The current study examined the engagement of spatial and phonetic processing of visual speech in a motor-oriented speech imitation task. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure the haemodynamic activities related to spatial processing and audiovisual integration in the superior parietal lobe (SPL) and the posterior superior/middle temporal gyrus (pSTG/pMTG) respectively. In addition, visuo-labial and visuo-lingual speech were compared with examine the influence of visual familiarity and audiovisual association on the processes in question. fNIRS revealed significant activations in the SPL but found no supra-additive audiovisual activations in the pSTG/pMTG, suggesting that the processing of audiovisual speech stimuli was primarily focused on spatial processes related to action comprehension and preparation, whereas phonetic processes related to audiovisual integration was minimal. Comparisons between visuo-labial and visuo-lingual speech imitations revealed no significant difference in the activation of the SPL or the pSTG/pMTG, suggesting that a higher degree of visual familiarity and audiovisual association did not significantly influence how visuo-labial speech was processed compared with visuo-lingual speech. The current study offered insights on the pattern of visual-speech processing under a motor-oriented task objective and provided further evidence for the modulation of multimodal speech integration by voluntary selective attention and task objective.

Early evoked brain activity underlies auditory and audiovisual speech recognition deficits in schizophrenia

ObjectivesPeople with Schizophrenia (SZ) show deficits in auditory and audiovisual speech recognition. It is possible that these deficits are related to aberrant early sensory processing, combined with an impaired ability to utilize visual cues to improve speech recognition. In this electroencephalography study we tested this by having SZ and healthy controls (HC) identify different unisensory auditory and bisensory audiovisual syllables at different auditory noise levels. MethodsSZ (N = 24) and HC (N = 21) identified one of three different syllables (/da/, /ga/, /ta/) at three different noise levels (no, low, high). Half the trials were unisensory auditory and the other half provided additional visual input of moving lips. Task-evoked mediofrontal N1 and P2 brain potentials triggered to the onset of the auditory syllables were derived and related to behavioral performance. ResultsIn comparison to HC, SZ showed speech recognition deficits for unisensory and bisensory stimuli. These deficits were primarily found in the no noise condition. Paralleling these observations, reduced N1 amplitudes to unisensory and bisensory stimuli in SZ were found in the no noise condition. In HC the N1 amplitudes were positively related to the speech recognition performance, whereas no such relationships were found in SZ. Moreover, no group differences in multisensory speech recognition benefits and N1 suppression effects for bisensory stimuli were observed. ConclusionOur study suggests that reduced N1 amplitudes reflect early auditory and audiovisual speech processing deficits in SZ. The findings that the amplitude effects were confined to salient speech stimuli and the attenuated relationship with behavioral performance in patients compared to HC, indicates a diminished decoding of the auditory speech signals in SZs. Our study also revealed relatively intact multisensory benefits in SZs, which implies that the observed auditory and audiovisual speech recognition deficits were primarily related to aberrant processing of the auditory syllables.

Auditory emotion recognition deficits in schizophrenia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Auditory emotion recognition (AER) deficits refer to the abnormal identification and interpretation of tonal or prosodic features that transmit emotional information in sounds or speech. Evidence suggests that AER deficits are related to the pathology of schizophrenia. However, the effect size of the deficit in specific emotional category recognition in schizophrenia and its association with psychotic symptoms have never been evaluated through a meta-analysis. A systematic search for literature published in English or Chinese until November 30, 2020 was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsychINFO, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang and Weip Databases. AER differences between patients and healthy controls (HCs) were assessed by the standardized mean differences (SMDs). Subgroup analyses were conducted for the type of emotional stimuli and the diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders (Sch/SchA). Meta-regression analyses were performed to assess the influence of patients' age, sex, illness duration, antipsychotic dose, positive and negative symptoms on the study SMDs. Eighteen studies containing 615 psychosis (Sch/SchA) and 488 HCs were included in the meta-analysis. Patients exhibited moderate deficits in recognizing the neutral, happy, sad, angry, fear, disgust, and surprising emotion. Neither the semantic information in the auditory stimuli nor the diagnosis subtype affected AER deficits in schizophrenia. Sadness, anger, and disgust AER deficits were each positively associated with negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia have moderate AER deficits, which were associated with negative symptoms. Rehabilitation focusing on improving AER abilities may help improve negative symptoms and the long-term prognosis of schizophrenia.

Multisensory Integration-Attention Trade-Off in Cochlear-Implanted Deaf Individuals.

The cochlear implant (CI) allows profoundly deaf individuals to partially recover hearing. Still, due to the coarse acoustic information provided by the implant, CI users have considerable difficulties in recognizing speech, especially in noisy environments. CI users therefore rely heavily on visual cues to augment speech recognition, more so than normal-hearing individuals. However, it is unknown how attention to one (focused) or both (divided) modalities plays a role in multisensory speech recognition. Here we show that unisensory speech listening and reading were negatively impacted in divided-attention tasks for CI users—but not for normal-hearing individuals. Our psychophysical experiments revealed that, as expected, listening thresholds were consistently better for the normal-hearing, while lipreading thresholds were largely similar for the two groups. Moreover, audiovisual speech recognition for normal-hearing individuals could be described well by probabilistic summation of auditory and visual speech recognition, while CI users were better integrators than expected from statistical facilitation alone. Our results suggest that this benefit in integration comes at a cost. Unisensory speech recognition is degraded for CI users when attention needs to be divided across modalities. We conjecture that CI users exhibit an integration-attention trade-off. They focus solely on a single modality during focused-attention tasks, but need to divide their limited attentional resources in situations with uncertainty about the upcoming stimulus modality. We argue that in order to determine the benefit of a CI for speech recognition, situational factors need to be discounted by presenting speech in realistic or complex audiovisual environments.

Relationships Between Daily Device Use and Early Communication Outcomes in Young Children With Cochlear Implants.

Children with significant hearing loss can gain access to sound via a cochlear implant (CI), but they must wear the device to reap the communication benefits of the device. That is, poor daily device use may result in underdeveloped perceptual and language skills in children and adolescents using CIs. This retrospective study focuses on the relationship between daily CI use and communication performance (auditory skills, speech recognition, expressive and receptive language) in young children, with the hypothesis that greater daily device use coincides with better communication outcomes. The authors conducted a clinical chart review of patients with CIs younger than 5 years old who used at least 1 CI speech processor with datalogging technology. Participants (n = 65) had a mean chronologic age of 3.5 years, mean implantation age of 1.9 years, and mean device experience of 1.6 years. Approximately one quarter of participants had additional disabilities. Daily device use (i.e., datalogging information), child characteristics (e.g., age at CI), and assessments of communication skills (i.e., parent questionnaires, speech recognition tests, standardized language assessments) were obtained from each child's records. The investigators performed correlational analyses to examine relationships between communication outcomes and daily device use, and they employed group comparisons and correlations to identify child characteristics that were significantly associated with daily device use (p < 0.05, corrections for family-wise error). Young children with CIs used their device, on average, 6.7 hr/d, with 63% below full-time use (<8 hr/d). Children without additional disabilities who wore their CI more hours per day had significantly better auditory, speech recognition, and language skills. A significant correlation also emerged between daily device use and early auditory skills in young CI users with additional disabilities, though relationships were more complicated for this subsample. Longer daily device use significantly correlated with younger age at CI and longer device experience. Differences in device use occurred in regards to absence versus presence of additional disabilities, bilateral versus unilateral device configuration, sign versus spoken language, and private versus government-assisted insurance. The strong relationship between daily device use and early communication suggests clinicians and parents should focus on increasing the number of hours per day young children wear their CIs to enhance auditory and language outcomes. However, intervention strategies must consider barriers to consistent device use and goals of the family to efficiently and effectively support families of young children with CIs who struggle with inconsistent device use.

The influence of stimulation levels on auditory thresholds and speech recognition in adult cochlear implant users

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the influence of minimum and maximum stimulation levels on auditory thresholds and speech recognition abilities in adult cochlear implant users. Method: Fifteen adults implanted with a Cochlear® device with over 12 months listening experience. Participants underwent routine programming for optimization of minimum (T) and maximum comfort (C) stimulation levels, which was saved in Program 1 (MO). Three further maps were constructed artificially adjusting the measured levels: Program 2 – MO with 10 fewer electrical current units at C level (MC-); Program 3 – MO with 10 fewer electric current units at T level (MT−); and Program 4 – MO with 10 more electric current units at T level (MT+). Sound field thresholds, recorded sentence recognition and monosyllable tests were presented in quiet and in noise. Results: There were significantly better thresholds at 1, 3, 4, and 6 kHz frequencies in MT+ and worse in MC−. A statistically significant difference was observed for sentences in quiet and monosyllables in quiet and noise with changing C levels, with worsening of the results for MC− program. Conclusion: The results suggest that T levels above the behavioural threshold provided an improvement in sound field thresholds but did not influence performance on speech recognition tests in quiet and in noise. In contrast, C levels below the behavioural comfort level worsened sound field thresholds and led to poorer performance in tests of sentence recognition in quiet and monosyllable recognition in quiet and in noise.

Interactions between auditory quality, linguistic context, short-term memory, and speech recognition

The ability to recognize speech depends on several factors, including the quality of the auditory input, linguistic context, and the listener’s cognitive abilities. These factors correlate with speech recognition, but less consideration has been given to how these factors interact. Here, we present evidence from two studies indicating that interactions exist between quality, context, and short-term memory. In study one, we demonstrate that contextual expectations across stimulus sets can determine the relationship between auditory quality and short-term memory. Specifically, recall of lists of digits is not affected by noise-band vocoding, whereas vocoding impairs both item identification and recall for lists of single syllable words drawn from a large, untrained set. In study two, we demonstrate that correlations between digit list recall and PRESTO sentence recognition are strongest when auditory quality is poor, whereas correlations between digit and word list recall weaken with decreasing auditory quality. This finding suggests that auditory quality and semantic context moderate the relationship between memory and speech recognition. We conclude that incorporating experimental measures of auditory quality, short-term memory, and recognition of speech materials with different contexts will provide a clearer perspective on how these factors relate to speech recognition in listeners with hearing loss.The ability to recognize speech depends on several factors, including the quality of the auditory input, linguistic context, and the listener’s cognitive abilities. These factors correlate with speech recognition, but less consideration has been given to how these factors interact. Here, we present evidence from two studies indicating that interactions exist between quality, context, and short-term memory. In study one, we demonstrate that contextual expectations across stimulus sets can determine the relationship between auditory quality and short-term memory. Specifically, recall of lists of digits is not affected by noise-band vocoding, whereas vocoding impairs both item identification and recall for lists of single syllable words drawn from a large, untrained set. In study two, we demonstrate that correlations between digit list recall and PRESTO sentence recognition are strongest when auditory quality is poor, whereas correlations between digit and word list recall weaken with decreasing auditory qua...

The role of speaker identification in auditory and visual speech recognition: Evidence from twin speech

Understanding the content of speech does not require identifying speaker voices. Similarly, identifying speaker voices does not require understanding the content of speech. However, ample evidence has shown that speaker voices affect auditory word recognition. Familiarity with speaker voices also affects audiovisual speech recognition. This study examines whether familiarity with twin speakers, who have highly similar voices, affects the magnitude of form priming and that of the McGurk effect. In Experiment 1, participants who were familiar or unfamiliar with the twin speakers performed lexical decision and voice discrimination on pairs of auditory words that were repeated or unrelated. In Experiment 2, the same participants were asked to identify syllables in which auditory and visual information was congruent or incongruent (e.g., auditory /ba/ with visual /ga/). The auditory and visual information was also mixed between the speakers. Experiment 1 showed that familiarity resulted in reduced priming in voice discrimination but not lexical decision. Experiment 2 showed that familiarity did not result in reduced McGurk effect. It appears that the benefit of familiarity in processing auditory and visual speech is compromised when processing highly similar voices. [Work supported by Ohio University PURF and CHSP Student Research Grant.]

Electrical dynamic range is only weakly associated with auditory performance and speech recognition in long-term users of cochlear implants

ObjectiveThe electrical dynamic range (EDR) has been suggested to be related to auditory performance in cochlear implant (CI) users. However, few reports have evaluated postlingual CI users who have used CIs for long periods in comparison with prelingual CI users. Here, we evaluated auditory perception and speech performance in terms of the EDR in long-term CI users. The EDR, and auditory and speech performances, were compared between pre- and post-lingual CI users. MethodsWe enrolled all patients who received CIs from April 2000 to December 2010 at Seoul National University Hospital, and who had ≥5 years of experience with CIs. The EDRs affording subjective responses at the threshold level (T-level) and comfortable level (C-level) were analyzed in terms of their relationships with pure tone audiometry levels, speech evaluation scores, including those on the Phonetically Balanced (PB) Word List test, vowel and consonant tests, a sentence test, and the Korean version of the Central Institute for the Deaf (K-CID) test; we also calculated Category in Auditory Performance (CAP) scores. ResultsWe found no significant difference in the average EDR, CAP, K-CID, PB word, consonant, or vowel scores between pre- and post-lingual CI users. The EDR was weakly associated with the PB word (P = 0.003, r = 0.462) and consonant scores (P = 0.005, r = 0.438). Other speech evaluations, such as the CAP, K-CID, and vowel scores, were not significantly associated with the EDR T-level. We found no association between pure tone thresholds at 0.5, 1, or 2 kHz, and the speech evaluation scores or EDRs of low-, middle-, or high-frequency channels. ConclusionsThe EDR was only weakly associated with speech performance, such as scores on consonant and PB word tests in long-term CI users, irrespective of pre- or post-lingual deafness status.

Patterns of Aided Loudness Growth in Experienced Adult Listeners with Early-Onset Severe-Profound Hearing Loss.

Individuals with early-onset severe-profound bilateral hearing loss (S/PHL) manifest diverse levels of benefit and satisfaction with hearing aids (HAs), even with prescriptive HA fitting. Such fittings incorporate normal loudness values, but little is known about aided loudness outcomes in this population and how those outcomes affect benefit or satisfaction. To describe aided loudness growth and satisfaction with aided listening in experienced adult HA users with S/PHL. The Contour Test of loudness perception was administered to listeners with S/PHL in the aided sound field using broadband speech, band-limited speech, and warble tones. Patterns and slopes of resultant loudness growth functions were referenced to sound field results from listeners with normal hearing (NH). S/PHL listeners also rated their aided listening satisfaction. It was expected that (1) most S/PHL listeners would demonstrate steeper than normal aided loudness growth, (2) loudness normalization would be associated with better high-frequency detection thresholds and speech recognition, and (3) closer approximation to normal would yield greater satisfaction. Participants were paid college-student volunteers: 23 with S/PHL, long-term aided listening experience, and new HAs; 15 with NH. Participants rated loudness on four ascending runs per stimulus (5-dB increments) using categories defined in 1997 by Cox and colleagues. The region between the 10th and 90th percentiles of the NH distribution constituted local norms against which location and slope of the S/PHL functions were examined over the range from Quiet to Loud-but-OK. S/PHL functions were categorized on the basis of their configurations (locations/slopes) relative to the norms. Pattern of aided loudness was normalized or within 5 dB of the normal region on 37% of trials with sufficient data for analysis. Only one of the 23 S/PHL listeners did not demonstrate Normal/Near-normal loudness on any trials. Four nonnormal patterns were identified: Steep (recruitment-like; 38% of trials); Shifted right, with normal growth rate (10%); Hypersensitive, with most intensities louder than normal (10%); and Shallow, with decreasing growth rate (7%). Listeners with high-frequency average thresholds above 100 dB hearing loss or no phonemic-based speech-discrimination skill were less likely to display normalized loudness. Slope was within norms for 52% of S/PHL trials, most also having a Normal/Near-normal growth pattern. Regardless of measured loudness results, all but four listeners with S/PHL reported satisfactory hearing almost always or most of the time with their HAs in designated priority need areas. The variety of aided loudness growth patterns identified reflects the diversity known to characterize individuals with early-onset S/PHL. Loudness rating at the validation stage of HA fit with these listeners is likely to reveal nonnormal loudness, signaling need for further HA adjustment. High satisfaction, however, despite nonnormal loudness growth, suggests that listeners with poor auditory speech recognition may benefit more from aided loudness that supports pattern perception (via the time-intensity waveform of speech), different from most current-day prescription fits.

Cochlear Implantation in Postlingual Adult Patients With Long-Term Auditory Deprivation.

The role of long-term hearing deprivation in cochlear implant performance is not well established, and the limits for implanting an auditory deprived ear are still unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of long-term auditory deprivation time on cochlear implant results. Retrospective case review study. Cochlear implantation tertiary referral center. Adult patients with postlingual deafness. Unilateral cochlear implantation between 2001 and January 2015. Age at implantation, sex, etiology of hearing loss, and duration of auditory deprivation in the implanted ear were collected. Cochlear implants results were expressed in terms of vowel identification, disyllabic word recognition, and sentence recognition.Spearman's correlation test was applied to determine the relationship between auditory deprivation time and speech recognition scores. Additionally, patients were divided according to their auditory deprivation time before implantation in group A (less than 10 yr) and group B (more than 10 yr). One hundred three patients met inclusion criteria for this study. There were 61 patients in group A, with a mean deprivation time of 2.52 years. There were 42 patients in group B, with a mean deprivation time of 19.67 years.There were no statistically significant differences between both groups regarding speech recognition scores.Deprivation time in the implanted ear was not statistically correlated with cochlear implantation performance. Long-term auditory deprivation in the ear to be implanted does not negatively influence cochlear implantation results and should not be considered criterion to reject cochlear implantation.

The impact of automatic exaggeration of the visual articulatory features of a talker on the intelligibility of spectrally distorted speech

Visual speech information plays a key role in supporting speech perception, especially when acoustic features are distorted or inaccessible. Recent research suggests that for spectrally distorted speech, the use of visual speech in auditory training improves not only subjects’ audiovisual speech recognition, but also their subsequent auditory-only speech recognition. Visual speech cues, however, can be affected by a number of facial visual signals that vary across talkers, such as lip emphasis and speaking style. In a previous study, we enhanced the visual speech videos used in perception training by automatically tracking and colouring a talker’s lips. This improved the subjects’ audiovisual and subsequent auditory speech recognition compared with those who were trained via unmodified videos or audio-only methods. In this paper, we report on two issues related to automatic exaggeration of the movement of the lips/ mouth area. First, we investigate subjects’ ability to adapt to the conflict between the articulation energy in the visual signals and the vocal effort in the acoustic signals (since the acoustic signals remained unexaggerated). Second, we have examined whether or not this visual exaggeration can improve the subjects’ performance of auditory and audiovisual speech recognition when used in perception training. To test this concept, we used spectrally distorted speech to train groups of listeners using four different training regimes: (1) audio only, (2) audiovisual, (3) audiovisual visually exaggerated, and (4) audiovisual visually exaggerated and lip-coloured. We used spectrally distorted speech (cochlear-implant-simulated speech) because the longer-term aim of our work is to employ these concepts in a training system for cochlear-implant (CI) users.The results suggest that after exposure to visually exaggerated speech, listeners had the ability to adapt alongside the conflicting audiovisual signals. In addition, subjects trained with enhanced visual cues (regimes 3 and 4) achieved better audiovisual recognition for a number of phoneme classes than those who were trained with unmodified visual speech (regime 2). There was no evidence of an improvement in the subsequent audio-only listening skills, however. The subjects’ adaptation to the conflicting audiovisual signals may have slowed down auditory perceptual learning, and impeded the ability of the visual speech to improve the training gains.

Analysis of post implantation speech recognition abilities of children with hearing impairment using cochlear implants

&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background:&lt;/strong&gt; As per census’2011, in India, there are 15, 94,249 children with hearing impairment below 18 years of age. A current method in treating children with hearing impairment is cochlear implantation. The use of cochlear implants aids in improving auditory detection, discrimination, identification and speech recognition. Although, speech recognition is a primary outcome measure in cochlear implantees, there is a paucity of word lists or tests to assess speech recognition abilities, both in local languages in general and Hindi in particular&lt;span lang="EN-IN"&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Methods:&lt;/strong&gt; In order to construct word lists comprising of monosyllabic and multisyllabic, easy and hard words, language samples from children (3 - 5 years of age, n = 120) were collected in order to create a database to select stimuli from. The frequency of occurrence and neighborhood density for the words selected from this database was then computed and word lists were constructed. These newly constructed Hindi word lists were administered to 45 cochlear implantees (4.1 to 9 years of age); one year post implantation. Subjects were instructed to listen to the words and repeat them. Responses were scored as number of words correctly repeated&lt;span lang="EN-IN"&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results:&lt;/strong&gt; Cochlear implantees were able to show lexical effects of difficulty, i.e. they achieved higher scores for easy words than those for hard words. However, they were not able to show the same effect for word type&lt;span lang="EN-IN"&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="abstract"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/strong&gt; The newly constructed Hindi word lists appear to be valid lists in assessment of speech recognition abilities of children with hearing impairment using cochlear implants&lt;span lang="EN-IN"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Lipreading and audiovisual speech recognition across the adult lifespan: Implications for audiovisual integration.

In this study of visual (V-only) and audiovisual (AV) speech recognition in adults aged 22-92 years, the rate of age-related decrease in V-only performance was more than twice that in AV performance. Both auditory-only (A-only) and V-only performance were significant predictors of AV speech recognition, but age did not account for additional (unique) variance. Blurring the visual speech signal decreased speech recognition, and in AV conditions involving stimuli associated with equivalent unimodal performance for each participant, speech recognition remained constant from 22 to 92 years of age. Finally, principal components analysis revealed separate visual and auditory factors, but no evidence of an AV integration factor. Taken together, these results suggest that the benefit that comes from being able to see as well as hear a talker remains constant throughout adulthood and that changes in this AV advantage are entirely driven by age-related changes in unimodal visual and auditory speech recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record

The effect of device use after sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in children: An electrophysiological approach

ObjectivesIn many studies evaluating the effect of sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in congenitally deaf children, device use is not taken into account. In this study, however, device use was analyzed in relation to auditory brainstem maturation and speech recognition, which were measured in children with early-onset deafness, 5–6 years after bilateral cochlear implantation. We hypothesized that auditory brainstem maturation is mostly functionally driven by auditory stimulation and is therefore influenced by device use and not mainly by inter-implant delay. MethodsTwenty-one children participated and had inter-implant delays between 1.2 and 7.2 years. The electrically-evoked auditory brainstem response was measured for both implants separately. The difference in interaural wave V latency and speech recognition between both implants were used in the analyses. Device use was measured with a Likert scale. ResultsResults showed that the less the second device is used, the larger the difference in interaural wave V latencies is, which consequently leads to larger differences in interaural speech recognition. ConclusionsIn children with early-onset deafness, after various periods of unilateral deprivation, full-time device use can lead to similar auditory brainstem responses and speech recognition between both ears. Therefore, device use should be considered as a relevant factor contributing to outcomes after sequential bilateral cochlear implantation. These results are indicative for a longer window between implantations in children with early-onset deafness to obtain symmetrical auditory pathway maturation than is mentioned in the literature. Results, however, must be interpreted as preliminary findings as actual device use with data logging was not yet available at the time of the study.