Maturation of speech perception in noise abilities during adolescence

Speech perception encompasses the perception of spectro-temporal cues. These cues include temporal envelope, temporal fine structure, and spectral shape of the signal. Extraction of these cues is essential for speech perception and, most importantly, for perceiving speech in the presence of noise (SPIN). Speech perception in noise scores improves with age in children and is crucial in their routine communications, including classroom learning. Though it is established that the speech perception in noise improves with age in children, the age at which SPIN scores become adult-like and the differences in the maturation pattern between the ears remains unclear. The present study aimed to assess and understand the maturation pattern of speech perception in noise abilities during adolescence.

The study included 146 participants who were divided into six crossectional age groups. Participants were in the age range of 10-15 years and adults of 18-19 years. SPIN was assessed for right and left ears for each of these sub-groups. The scores were compared across the different subgroups for both the ears.

Results demonstrated that SPIN scores in the right ear were matured by the age of 10 years and were comparable with the right ear SPIN scores in adults. Pairwise comparison using Bonferroni's corrections for multiple comparisons of left ear SPIN scores revealed that SPIN scores in the left ear become adult-like between 13 and 14 years of age.

Findings of the current study can be attributed to the morphological changes and differences in the developmental changes across the different regions of the cortex.