Dichotic Consonant-vowel Test Research Articles

Evaluation of Difference in Performance of Young Adults in Dichotic Digit Test in Tamil and Dichotic Consonant Vowel Test

Background and Aim: Dichotic listening has been defined as the simultaneous stimulation of both ears and has been used to evaluate a listener’s binaural integration/separation ability. Dichotic tests are available in various languages and use varied stimuli. The study aimed to evaluate the differential performance of Tamil-speaking young adults in two tests of dichotic perception namely Dichotic Consonant Vowel (DCV) test and Dichotic Digit Test in Tamil (DDT T).
 Methods: Sixty adults with normal hearing aged 18 to 35 years were the participants of the study. All the young adults were native speakers of the Tamil language without significant auditory history. DCV and DDT-T were administered in randomized order at 50 dB SL (re: SRT) in free recall condition. The participants were instructed to respond orally and the responses were noted.
 Results: Better performance was observed in dichotic digit compared to DCV test for all participants. This was attributed to the higher number of cues available in DDT-T. Further, error analyses of participants’ responses revealed that voicing errors were higher with the highest errors in the identification of unvoiced consonant /ta/ in both ears. The reason for this could be the lack of contextual cues in DCV test for Tamil-speaking individuals to interpret the voicing feature of a consonant.
 Conclusion: It can be concluded that DDT-T was more useful in assessing binaural integration ability of native Tamil speakers compared to DCV. It is recommended to be used in the behavioral test battery for evaluating auditory processing disorder in native Tamil speakers.
 Keywords: Dichotic digit; dichotic consonant vowel; free recall

Relationship between Auditory Processing Abilities and Hearing Aid Benefit in Elderly Individuals with Hearing Impairment

Background and Aim: Cognitive and auditory processing deficits are seen in older individuals with normal hearing sensitivity. Studies on older individuals with hearing impairment have assessed the cognitive function and correlated with hearing devices benefit. Since auditory processing can also affect speech perception abilities, and there is a possible relationship between cognition and some of the auditory processing abilities, it is essential to assess the relationship between auditory processing abilities and hearing aid benefit in naïve and experienced hearing aid users in older adults.
 Methods: Fifty individuals in the age range of 51 to 70 years with mild to moderate hearing loss participated in the study. There were 30 participants without any hearing aid experience and 20 participants with hearing aid experience for at least six weeks. Their auditory processing abilities were tested using gap detection test, duration pattern test, speech perception in noise, dichotic consonant-vowel test, masking level difference, forward and backward span tests. The hearing aid benefit was assessed using aided speech perception in noise measures and International Outcome Inventory-Hearing Aids questionnaire in Kannada.
 Results: Spearman’s correlation showed only correlation between auditory closure ability and binaural integration abilities with hearing aid benefit in experienced users. There was no correlation between any other auditory processing abilities and hearing aid benefit.
 Conclusion: There is a correlation between a few auditory processes and hearing aid use in elderly individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss.
 Keywords: Auditory processing abilities; hearing aid benefit; hearing aid users; working memory

Relationship Between Peripheral and Central Auditory Abilities and Iron Deficiency Anemia in Adolescent Girls.

This study evaluated the peripheral hearing and central auditory processing abilities in Indian adolescent girls with iron deficiency anemia (IDA). The participants consisted of 75 adolescent girls with IDA, 50 adolescent girls without IDA, and 50 adolescent boys without IDA. Participants underwent a test battery to evaluate auditory processing and peripheral hearing assessment. In this study, central auditory processing abilities were assessed using Speech Perception in Noise test in Kannada (SPIN-K) and quick speech perception in noise tests in Kannada, dichotic consonant-vowel test, gap detection threshold (GDT), and auditory digit sequencing and auditory digit span tests. Results showed that the hearing thresholds at extremely low and high frequencies (250 and 8000 Hz), although within clinically normal limits, were poorer in girls with IDA than in the control groups. Also, girls with IDA performed poorly in SPIN-K of the right ear, GDT, and auditory backward digit span tests. These subtle auditory deficiencies may be attributed to the compromised blood supply to the central auditory nervous system, as observed in the current study.

ZDOLNOŚCI SŁUCHOWE U OSÓB Z FORMALNYM WYKSZTAŁCENIEM MUZYCZNYM I BEZ TAKIEGO WYKSZTAŁCENIA

IntroductionAuditory perception can be enhanced by musical training and practice. Considering the multiple brain areas involved in musical learning, good auditory perceptual skills can contribute to phonological awareness, speech recognition in the presence of noise, reading, syllable recognition, and other language skills.Material and methodsThere were 30 adults between 18 and 27 years old who participated. They were divided into two groups: 15 individuals without formal musical training (Non-Musicians) and 15 individuals with 5 years or more of formal musical training (Musicians), paired by gender and age. Procedures used for assessing their hearing skills were the Duration Pattern test, Staggered Spondaic Word test, Masking Level Difference test, and Dichotic Consonant–Vowel test.ResultsIn all tests, the Musicians group showed a higher average score than the Non-Musicians. In the MLD test, the average level difference was 3 dB higher for the Musicians than for the Non-Musicians (p = 0.001). There were also statistically significant mean differences between the groups for the DP test, SSW test in the right ear, and DCV test (number of errors).ConclusionsIndividuals with formal musical training show better auditory attention abilities, which are important for developing good listening skills, resulting in good communication and linguistic performance compared to individuals without prior musical training.

Influence of Alignment Strategies and Consonant Acoustic Features on Laterality Index in Dichotic Testing in Indian Languages

The right ear advantage (REA) observed for dichotic CV (DCV) testing in Indian languages is seen to be smaller compared with the observations in several studies in English and other languages. The present study aims to explore whether the differences in the temporal alignment of consonant-vowel (CV) stimuli used for the dichotic task is a contributing factor that can explain the smaller REAs observed in Indian languages. The study compared the laterality index (LI) values between DCV test results obtained using CV stimuli that were temporally aligned at the acoustic onset versus the burst onset, with 0 milliseconds lag between the right and left ears. A total of 50 right-handed individuals (native speakers of Kannada language) in the age range of 17 to 30 years with normal hearing sensitivity participated in the study. The participants' responses to the two sets of DCV stimuli were recorded and compared. LI was calculated for the overall scores as well as for specific voiced and unvoiced segment combinations. To test the reliability of the findings, 10 of the participants were re-tested using the same stimuli and the data were checked for reliability. The overall LI was 15.1% for the stimuli temporally aligned at the burst onset, whereas it was 5.7% for the stimuli temporally aligned at the acoustic onset. The difference in LI was not significant between the alignment conditions for unvoiced-unvoiced and voiced-voiced CV combinations, but this difference was significant for the unvoiced-voiced and voiced-unvoiced CV combinations. Comparing test and re-test scores showed good reliability. The results support our hypothesis that smaller REA observed in DCV task in Indian languages was due to the temporal alignment of CV stimuli. In the acoustic-onset-aligned condition, presenting pairs contrasting in the voicing feature tends to cancel out a relative ear advantage.

Comparison of Diagnostic Auditory Processing Test Scores Measured in Clinical and School Settings

Purpose The study aimed to compare auditory processing and cognitive test scores measured in a clinical setting with that measured in a school setting using a repeated-measures design. This was done on typically developing children and children with auditory processing disorder (APD). Method Thirty-two children (16 typically developing and 16 with APD), aged 7 years, were evaluated using three diagnostic auditory processing tests and a cognitive test. The tests included the Speech Perception in Noise Test in Kannada, the Gap Detection Threshold Test, the Dichotic Consonant-Vowel Test, and the Auditory Memory and Sequencing Test in Kannada. All the children were evaluated in an audiological diagnostic setting, as well as in their school. Results No significant difference in scores was obtained in the two settings for all the four tests that were administered. This was seen in the typically developing children and the children with APD. Additionally, the pass/fail decision for each test did not alter in the two settings. Moderate to almost perfect agreement was seen between the tests carried out in the two settings in both groups, on a Kappa test of agreement. In both settings, the children with APD performed significantly poorer than the typically developing children on the four diagnostic tests. Conclusions The findings of the study indicate that the diagnostic auditory processing tests and the cognitive test can be carried out in school settings as effectively as tests carried out in an audiological diagnostic clinical setting. This will enable carrying out diagnostic tests on children in schools soon after they are referred on screening auditory processing tools, administered in the educational setting. This will prevent missing diagnosis of children who fail to report to a diagnostic audiological center for detailed auditory processing evaluation.

Age related changes in auditory processes in children aged 6 to 10 years

ObjectivesThe study evaluated age related changes in auditory processing (separation/auditory closure, binaural auditory integration abilities, temporal processing abilities) and higher order cognitive function (auditory memory & sequencing abilities) in children. Additionally, the study aimed to assess the effect of gender on the auditory processes/higher cognitive function as well as ear effect for the monaural tests that were administered. MethodsThe cross-sectional experimental study evaluated 280 typically developing children aged 6 to 10 years, divided into five age groups. They were evaluated on auditory processes/higher order cognitive functions reported to be frequently affected in children with auditory processing disorders (Speech-in-Noise Test in Indian-English, Dichotic consonant-vowel test, Duration pattern test, & Revised Auditory Memory and Sequencing Test in Indian-English). ResultsANOVA and MANOVA revealed no significant gender effect in all four tests. However, a significant age effect was seen, with the rate at which maturation occurred, varying across the tests. ConclusionsThus, the findings indicate that different auditory processes have different rates of development. This reflects that the areas responsible for different auditory processes/higher cognitive function do not develop at the same pace.

Dichotic listening performance in children with dyslexia

The present study aimed to compare the dichotic listening task in children with dyslexia and typically developing children using dichotic consonant vowel test. Twenty children in the age range of 10 to 12 years were taken in the present study. Ten children with dyslexia were served as experimental group whereas another ten age–matched typically developing children were considered as control group. The results revealed that dichotic consonant vowel scores were significantly reduced in children with dyslexia compared to typically developing children for single correct score of right and left ear as well as double correct scores at 0.05 levels of significance. Further, it was also observed that children with dyslexia showed left ear advantage instead of right ear advantage as seen in typically developing children. Hence, it is concluded that children with dyslexia performed poorly in dichotic listening task and direction of ear advantage was also different compared to typically developing children.

Behavioral and electrophysiological auditory processing measures in traumatic brain injury after acoustically controlled auditory training: a long-term study.

ABSTRACTObjective To investigate the long-term efficacy of acoustically controlled auditory training in adults after tarumatic brain injury.Methods A total of six audioogically normal individuals aged between 20 and 37 years were studied. They suffered severe traumatic brain injury with diffuse axional lesion and underwent an acoustically controlled auditory training program approximately one year before. The results obtained in the behavioral and electrophysiological evaluation of auditory processing immediately after acoustically controlled auditory training were compared to reassessment findings, one year later.Results Quantitative analysis of auditory brainsteim response showed increased absolute latency of all waves and interpeak intervals, bilaterraly, when comparing both evaluations. Moreover, increased amplitude of all waves, and the wave V amplitude was statistically significant for the right ear, and wave III for the left ear. As to P3, decreased latency and increased amplitude were found for both ears in reassessment. The previous and current behavioral assessment showed similar results, except for the staggered spondaic words in the left ear and the amount of errors on the dichotic consonant-vowel test.Conclusion The acoustically controlled auditory training was effective in the long run, since better latency and amplitude results were observed in the electrophysiological evaluation, in addition to stability of behavioral measures after one-year training.

COMPARISON OF DICHOTIC CONSONANT- VOWEL TEST RESULTS BETWEEN RIGHT HANDED AND LEFT HANDED ADULTS WITH NORMAL HEARING

Introduction: According to the previous studies, left hemisphere of the brain has specialized for language processing. The relation between handedness and the brain hemispheres is very obvious. In more than 95% of right- handed people and 70% of left- handed people the left hemisphere is responsible for language processing generally. A few studies have investigated the relationship between handedness and the brain hemispheres by means of Dichotic Consonant- Vowel ( DCV ) test. The aim of the present study is to investigate the results of DCV test in right- handed and left- handed adults with normal hearing. Methods: 40 right- handed and 40 left- handed adults aged between 18- 40 years whose handedness was verified by Edinburgh scale participated in this study. This research was performed at rehabilitation faculty, ShahidBeheshti University of medical sciences. DCV test results were analyzed t- test parametric and Mann- Whitney non- parametric statistical tests. Results: Right- handed group scores were more than left- handed group scores which was meaningful statistically ( p≤ 0.01 ). The percentage of double corrected consonant- vowels in right- handed group was more than this in left- handed group. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that right- handed group function is better than left- handed group function in the DCV test. Right ear advantage is obvious not only in right- handed group but also in left- handed one which shows left hemisphere advantage in processing the linguistic information. Keywords: Right- handedness, left- handedness, dichotic consonant- vowel test

Behawioralna ocena dzieci zagrożonych zaburzeniami centralnego przetwarzania słuchowego, u których nie występują problemy z czytanie

BackgroundAuditory processing abilities in children with dyslexia and reading disabilities have been widely studied using various behavioral and electrophysiological measures. However explorations in children with (C)APD without reading disability are lacking, and the present study was designed to fill that gap.Material and MethodsThe study comprised an experimental group and a control group, the former having 15 children at risk of (C)APD without reading difficulties and the latter 15 typically developing children. Behavioral tests for (C)APD were administered to participants in both groups, and included the gap detection test (GDT), pitch pattern test (PPT), dichotic consonant vowel test (DCV), speech perception in noise (SPIN), and masking level difference (MLD) test.ResultsChildren who were at risk of (C)APD without reading deficit displayed higher thresholds in GDT and gained poorer scores on PPT as well as SPIN when compared to the group of typically developing children. However, the performance on MLD and DCV were comparable between the groups.ConclusionsThe present study suggests a combination of GDT, PPT, and SPIN as a possible sensitive tool in clinics for indicating central auditory deficits in children at risk of (C)APD without reading deficits. DCV and MLD were not sensitive.

Interaural Asymmetries Revealed by Dichotic Listening Tests in Normal and Dyslexic Children

Normal and dyslexic right-handed children were assessed with three dichotic listening tests, the Dichotic Digits test, the Competing Words subtest of the SCAN, and the Dichotic Consonant-Vowel test. Performance was measured as both number and percentage of correct responses in the right and left ears. Laterality was defined as a simple difference in percentage between the two ears. Differences across the tests were revealed for all children, with the greatest differences occurring for left-ear responses. Only one dichotic listening test, Competing Words from the SCAN, produced a consistent right-ear advantage across all of the children tested. Between groups of children, differences in performance and in laterality were demonstrated. Using a criterion of poorer than 76 percent correct for the left ear, the Competing Words subtest of the SCAN identified 7 of the 10 dyslexic children as abnormal, with no false alarms in the control group.

The effect of linguistic background on staggered spondaic word and dichotic consonant vowel scores.

This study was undertaken to determine the effect of linguistic background on scores obtained by native and non-native subjects on two dichotic speech tests in American English, the staggered spondaic word (SSW) and the dichotic consonant-vowel (CV) tests. Thirty subjects whose native languages were either Hindi or Arabic were tested. Test findings were compared to results obtained from 10 native English-speaking subjects. The non-native English speakers showed abnormally high error scores on the SSW test while the native speakers performed with no errors on that test. Performance on the dichotic CV test was comparable for both the native English and the Hindi subjects, while the Arabic subjects performed significantly worse than the two other groups. These data indicate that tests of speech perception using English must be interpreted with caution when administered to non-native English speakers, and that neither the SSW nor the dichotic CV tests may be assumed to be free of linguistic bias.

Performance of adults on directed listening tasks using a dichotic CV test.

The purpose of this study was to examine the response of adult subjects to directed listening tasks, using the dichotic consonant-vowel (CV) identification test. Twenty-five subjects, 20 to 36 years of age, were tested. Dichotic CV testing was administered utilizing the directed listening paradigm and free recall instructions. Results indicated that subjects showed right ear advantage in the directed right listening condition, and left ear advantage in directed left listening condition. Free recall listening conditions showed a right ear advantage. These results show a previously unreported maturational effect on dichotic CV testing. Implications of test findings are discussed.