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Acoustic change complex in background noise: phoneme level and timing effects
Curtis J Billings1,2, Leslie D Grush3, Nashrah Maamor3,4
1National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System, Portland, Oregon Curtis.Billings2@va.gov.
Background noise impacts speech-evoked cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs). The vowel /ɑ/ response amplitude showed no signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) effect, unlike other phonemes, suggesting complex neural coding in noise.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Speech Perception
- Signal Processing
Background:
- Background noise significantly affects auditory processing.
- Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) offer insights into the auditory system's physiology.
- Understanding neural coding of speech in noise is crucial for audiology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of background noise on the neural coding of phonemes within a syllable.
- To analyze the effects of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and phoneme context on CAEPs.
- To differentiate the neural processing of consonants (/s/) and vowels (/ɑ/) in varying noise levels.
Main Methods:
- Recorded CAEPs from 15 young normal-hearing adults.
- Presented speech stimuli (/s/, /ɑ/, /sɑ/) at various SNRs.
- Analyzed latency and amplitude changes in response to SNR and phoneme context.
Main Results:
- Generally, improved SNR led to decreased latency and increased amplitude for all stimuli.
- The vowel /ɑ/ response amplitude was an exception, showing no SNR effect but a significant context effect.
- Differential neural coding of /s/ and /ɑ/ was observed, potentially due to level and timing differences.
Conclusions:
- Neural refractoriness may influence amplitude responses in syllable contexts.
- The acoustic properties of syllables and noise, along with refractory effects, impact vowel coding in noise.
- Findings enhance understanding of speech syllable coding in noise and may aid in addressing speech-perception difficulties.
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