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High-frequency audibility: benefits for hearing-impaired listeners
1Department of Surgery, University of Rochester, New York 14642, USA.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|July 22, 1998
Summary
Providing high-frequency speech information improves speech recognition for most hearing-impaired listeners. However, severe hearing loss, especially above 4000 Hz, diminishes the benefit of added audibility.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Speech Science
Background:
- Hearing impairment often affects high-frequency speech perception.
- Audible high-frequency speech information may enhance speech recognition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the benefit of providing audible high-frequency speech information to hearing-impaired listeners.
- To develop and apply a new measure of "efficiency" for assessing the use of frequency-specific speech information.
Main Methods:
- Systematic investigation with normal-hearing and high-frequency hearing-impaired listeners.
- Speech recognition testing with low-pass filtered nonsense syllables.
- Calculation of Articulation Index (AI) and a novel "efficiency" measure.
Main Results:
- Most hearing-impaired listeners showed improved speech recognition with added high-frequency audibility.
- Severe hearing loss (beyond 55 dB HL), particularly at 4000 Hz and above, reduced the efficacy of increased audibility.
- The new AI method suggested high presentation levels contribute to speech recognition deficiencies.
Conclusions:
- The benefit of high-frequency audibility is limited by the degree of hearing loss.
- A novel "efficiency" measure quantifies how effectively hearing-impaired listeners utilize specific frequency bands.
- High presentation levels play a role in speech recognition deficits for some hearing-impaired individuals.
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