Adaptation to Reverberation for Speech Perception: A Systematic Review

Area of Science:

• Auditory perception
• Acoustic signal processing
• Speech intelligibility research

Background:

• Reverberation significantly distorts speech signals in everyday environments.
• Normal-hearing listeners demonstrate remarkable robustness and rapid recalibration for speech perception.
• Extensive research over two decades has focused on adaptation mechanisms mitigating reverberation's impact.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review studies on listener adaptation to reverberant speech.
• To summarize existing research findings on this topic.
• To identify knowledge gaps and suggest future research directions.

Main Methods:

• A systematic review adhering to PRISMA guidelines was conducted.
• Two independent researchers screened 661 studies.
• Twenty-three studies were included in the final analysis.

Main Results:

• Speech adaptation to reverberation is robust across various conditions (environments, tasks, noise levels).
• Adaptation occurs rapidly, sometimes within 1 second, influenced by reverberation and noise intensity.
• Adaptation is most effective in moderate reverberation, diminishing in highly reverberant settings.

Conclusions:

• Listener adaptation to reverberant speech is a well-established phenomenon.
• The underlying neural mechanisms remain largely unclear, with amplitude modulation changes being a primary hypothesis.
• Further research is needed for a comprehensive theory of reverberation adaptation and its applications.