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Complex-Tone Pitch Discrimination in Listeners With Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Federica Bianchi1, Michal Fereczkowski2, Johannes Zaar2
1Hearing Systems Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark fbia@elektro.dtu.dk.
Trends in Hearing
|September 9, 2016
Summary
Hearing loss amplifies auditory nerve responses, improving pitch discrimination for specific complex tones in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). This enhancement is linked to reduced cochlear compression.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Psychoacoustics
- Speech Perception
Background:
- Noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is known to alter auditory processing.
- Specifically, SNHL enhances the amplitude of envelope coding in auditory-nerve fibers.
- Pitch coding of unresolved complex tones is thought to depend on temporal envelope coding.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate pitch-discrimination performance in listeners with SNHL.
- To determine if enhanced envelope coding in SNHL affects pitch perception of complex tones.
- To explore the relationship between cochlear compression, filter bandwidth, and pitch discrimination in SNHL.
Main Methods:
- Pitch-discrimination thresholds were measured in normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) listeners.
- Listeners performed tasks using sine-phase (SP) and random-phase (RP) complex tones.
- Cochlear compression and auditory-filter bandwidths were estimated in the same participants.
Main Results:
- HI listeners performed worse than NH listeners on RP tones but similarly on SP tones when harmonics were unresolved.
- The improvement in pitch discrimination for SP over RP tones (F0DL ratio) was significantly larger in HI listeners.
- Reduced cochlear compression, not filter bandwidth, correlated with the increased F0DL ratio and was modeled to enhance temporal envelopes.
Conclusions:
- Sensorineural hearing loss, particularly the loss of cochlear compression, can enhance temporal envelope coding.
- This enhancement may improve pitch discrimination for certain complex tones (SP) in hearing-impaired individuals.
- Findings suggest a compensatory mechanism in the auditory system for pitch perception deficits caused by SNHL.
Keywords:
cochlear compressionenvelope enhancementfrequency selectivitysensorineural hearing lossunresolved harmonicsMore Related Videos
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