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Informational masking in listeners with sensorineural hearing loss
Gerald Kidd1, Tanya L Arbogast, Christine R Mason
1Department of Communication Disorders, Hearing Research Center, Boston University, MA 02215, USA. gkidd@bu.edu
Summary
Listeners with sensorineural hearing loss struggle more with informational masking, indicating difficulty separating sounds. This suggests hearing loss impacts both peripheral and central auditory processing.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Psychoacoustics
- Audiology
Background:
- Sensorineural hearing loss (SHL) often leads to increased susceptibility to auditory masking.
- Distinguishing between energetic masking (noise) and informational masking (complex sounds) is crucial for understanding hearing deficits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how sensorineural hearing loss affects energetic and informational masking.
- To determine if hearing loss impairs the ability to segregate complex sounds.
Main Methods:
- 46 listeners with SHL performed a tone-in-burst detection task.
- Energetic masking used Gaussian noise bursts; informational masking used two types of 2-tone bursts (MBS and MBD).
- Signal-to-masker ratios at masked threshold were measured.
Main Results:
- Effectiveness of the "multiple-bursts different" (MBD) masker increased with hearing loss.
- Effectiveness of the "multiple-bursts same" (MBS) masker showed less change with hearing loss.
- Reduced frequency selectivity was observed in the energetic masking condition.
Conclusions:
- Sensorineural hearing loss impairs the perceptual segregation of sound components.
- Increased masking in SHL results from both peripheral (reduced frequency selectivity) and central (impaired segregation) auditory processing deficits.