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Published on: September 7, 2022
Speech perception enhanced by noise in listeners with normal hearing
Liat Kishon-Rabin1, Sarit Gam, Tamar Shiff
1Department of Communication Disorders, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel 52621. lrabin@post.tau.ac.il
Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology
|November 26, 2008
Summary
Adding low-level noise (LLN) can surprisingly improve speech recognition in background noise for many listeners. This study shows that this auditory enhancement occurs when initial word recognition is below 50%.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Psychoacoustics
- Signal Processing
Background:
- Noise typically degrades listening conditions.
- However, low-intensity noise may enhance signal detection in non-linear systems.
- Its functional significance in the human auditory system is under-explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the benefit of adding low-level noise (LLN) to speech recognition in background noise.
- To determine if LLN can improve performance for individuals with normal hearing.
Main Methods:
- 27 adults with normal hearing participated.
- Speech stimuli included consonant-vowel-consonant monosyllabic words.
- Babble noise (BN) was used, with LLN added to test recognition in BN + LLN versus BN alone.
Main Results:
- 63% of participants showed significant improvement (4-32%) with LLN.
- 70% of those improved participants saw gains over 12%.
- Benefit was observed when baseline word recognition in BN was below 50%.
Conclusions:
- This study provides the first evidence for the benefit of LLN in enhancing speech-in-noise recognition in normally hearing listeners.
- LLN may act as a beneficial auditory enhancement under specific degraded listening conditions.
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